Ready for Heaven?
Over the years serving on staff at a church I have heard church people make comments that cause me to think they’ll not like heaven very much, assuming they’re going. In reference to another ethnicity or culture, I have heard people say things like, “I am uncomfortable around those type of people.” I have wondered, […]
Reaching Men and the Jesus-Centered Leader
Brady Cooper is the senior pastor of New Vision Baptist Church, the church where I serve as teaching pastor. During Brady’s tenure, over the last nine years, the church has grown from 400 people in worship to 4,000. Brady is a man who is being formed by the gospel in his faith and in his […]
I Don’t Need Church; I Worship Him Alone
Perhaps you have heard someone say something like, “I love God but I’m not really into church.” Or “I don’t need to go to church to worship God; it’s more of a private thing for me.” There’s a common misconception, a common misunderstanding, that our faith is private. There’s confusion between a private faith and […]
Whose Am I?
Think back to your middle school years. So much of your day depended on your relationships. You worried about whom you would sit by on the bus because, in your mind, that indicated who you were as a person. Or you cared greatly about where you would sit during lunch. Or whose locker you would […]
The Truth of God
The truth of God is undefiled and unchangeable, and God has chosen to use His truth to bring transformation to His people. By His truth we were saved and by His truth we are made holy and walk in freedom. Quite simply, transformation does not occur apart from the truth of God. In relation to […]
Thoughts from the Greatest Worship Book
The Book of Psalms is the greatest worship handbook ever compiled, the greatest hymnal ever penned, and the greatest collection of exhortations to worship ever assembled. Every worship pastor or worship leader is wise to throw him/herself into the sacred Psalms. The Book of Psalms ends with: Hallelujah! Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in […]
Change the Character, Change the Story
While the plot and the context of a story are critical, the central characters are really what makes a story unique. The characters or central figures in a story are inseparable from the story itself. If you alter the character of the central figure, the story is not even the same story. For example, if […]
Corporate Worship: A Shadow of Eternity
Right now, this very moment, God is being perfectly praised in the heavens by angels and believers who have already entered His eternal presence. And every time we gather to praise Him corporately, our gathering is a foretaste of this eternal gathering. Our worshipping together shadows eternity. Then I looked, and I heard around the […]
Church Culture and the Gospel
Will Mancini is the founder and leader of Auxano, a consulting group that helps church leaders navigate growth with vision clarity. Since Will and I are often pigeonholed as “strategy guys,” some have viewed us as pragmatic types. But we are guys who deeply love Jesus and believe the gospel must impact everything a church […]
The Bride of Christ
Unless you have dozed off at every wedding you attended, you have heard the famous passage about God making two people one. When God first set the foundation for marriage in the book of Genesis, He said that two people will become one flesh (Gen. 2:24). God is describing the depth of a relationship where […]