Monthly Archives: June 2011

Many readers my age and older will remember Jack Exum, Sr., who traveled the country for many years preaching gospel meetings. Jack was an important thought leader in helping the Churches of Christ rediscover the work of the Holy Spirit … Continue reading →

First, a question: Here are the relative advantages, as I see them:

In Acts 13, we read Paul’s first recorded sermon, delivered early during his first missionary journey – (Act 13:16-41 ESV) 6 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen.” … Continue reading →

As an experiment, I’ve removed the IntenseDebate feature and reverted to the default WordPress format. I’ve also forced a single layer of comments. That is, all comments will listed in strict chronological order, with the newest at the bottom. This also … Continue reading →

In part 6 of his series, Mark points out the chronic problem of poor planning – I know missionaries who strategically planned on getting jobs in their new country, only to discover when they arrived that local law would not … Continue reading →

Getting organized We need to talk about just what it is that elders should do. Not what they do, but what they should do. You see, if the early church was led by city-wide elders, what did they do? It’s … Continue reading →

God compelled Peter to go to the house Cornelius and preach the gospel — to not just a Gentile, but a commander in an occupying army! (Act 10:34-43 ESV) 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand … Continue reading →

In part 5 of his series, Mark argues that we need an overarching, worldwide strategy for missions. And we need to share information among the churches and missionaries. He suggests – We need a Wikipedia-like site for mission information, preferably … Continue reading →

He is, of course, very wrong, and yet he’s almost exactly right. How would you have rewritten his talk?

Now, the fact is that neither the institutional church nor the house church model coheres with the First Century model for how to organize a church. In the New Testament, there was but one church in a given city. That … Continue reading →