Subscribe to RSS feeds
Categories
Index (4,154)
Adult Bible Classes (703)
1 Corinthians (109)
- 1 John (19)
- 1 Kings (1)
- 1 Samuel (12)
- 2 Samuel (11)
- Acts (46)
- Amazing Grace (69)
- Apologetics (52)
- Blue Parakeet (29)
- Creation 2.0 (36)
- Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan (51)
- Galatians (35)
- John (140)
- Luke (2)
- Psalms (1)
- Revelation (16)
- Sermon on the Mount (42)
- The Story (36)
- Bible Study Resources (39)
- Blogging (7)
- Book Reviews (349)
- Church Refugees (11)
- Covenant: God's Purpose, God's Plan (7)
- Gordon Wenham’s Story as Torah: Reading the Old Testament Narrative Ethically (7)
- Honor & Shame, by Roland Muller (3)
- How God Became King (3)
- John Nugent’s Endangered Gospel (9)
- Kingdom Conspiracy by Scot McKnight (21)
- Misreading Scriptures with Western Eyes (14)
- Muscle & Shovel, by Michael Shank (32)
- N. T. Wright's After You Believe (5)
- N. T. Wright's The Day the Revolution Began (108)
- Naked Gospel, The (5)
- NT Wright's Surprised by Scripture (1)
- Paul and the Faithfulness of God (22)
- Sitting at the Feet of the Rabbi Jesus (3)
- The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni (24)
- The Case for the Psalms, by N. T. Wright (4)
- The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant, by Michael J. Gorman (7)
- To Change the World (17)
- Vines: God and the Gay Christian (6)
- Christian Disciplines (27)
- Christian Evidences/Apologetics (62)
- Archaeology (7)
- Scientific Creationism (17)
- Church & Politics (50)
- Church Finances and Business (44)
- Taxes (13)
- Church of Christ Doctrinal Issues (647)
- Age of Accountability (17)
- Assembly 2.0 (13)
- Christmas (7)
- Church of Christ Deism (16)
- Congregational Autonomy and Mergers (22)
- Denominationalism (2)
- Discipline (6)
- Divorce and Remarriage (72)
- Ecclesiology (24)
- Church 2.0 (22)
- Communion (2)
- Deacons (5)
- Fork in the Road (115)
- Instrumental Music (129)
- Real Restoration (52)
- Real Worship (32)
- Renewing Our Worship (52)
- Role of Women (91)
- Sacramentalism (12)
- What Must be Preserved of the Churches of Christ? (25)
- Church Plants and Foreign Missions (56)
- Church Trends (67)
- Churches of Christ (246)
- Commenting (13)
- Communion Meditations (42)
- Counseling (1)
- Evangelism (1)
- Grace (206)
- Amazing Grace (103)
- Facing Our Failure (3)
- Faith That Works (24)
- GraceConversation.com (15)
- Hermeneutics (207)
- Holy Spirit and Providence (124)
- Jewish Roots of Christianity (6)
- Leadership (491)
- Adult Bible Classes (9)
- Church Growth (104)
- Direct Hit (6)
- Megachurches (16)
- Replanting a Church (28)
- What's Wrong with How We Do Church (12)
- Church Ministries (29)
- Small Groups (7)
- Spiritual Formation (7)
- Church Refugees (11)
- Deacons (12)
- Elders (129)
- Advice to a New Elder (42)
- Bad Elders (9)
- Good to Great (3)
- I Sold My Soul on eBay (7)
- Leading a Small Church (3)
- Leading Change (31)
- Litigation Between Brothers (2)
- Ministers (31)
- Multi-generational/Orange Ministry (15)
- Multisite Churches (1)
- Organizing Your Church (7)
- Overseeing the Moderate Church (7)
- Preacher Searches (10)
- Preaching (4)
- Racial Diversity in Church (10)
- Sexual Ethics (17)
- Teams (2)
- The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni (24)
- The Pain of Disappointment (15)
- Vision (1)
- Worship/Assembly Planning (8)
- Missional Christianity (129)
- Everything Must Change (4)
- Ministry Ideas (21)
- Radical (8)
- Resident Aliens (8)
- Simply Missional (11)
- New Wineskins Magazine (26)
- Parenting (2)
- Race (1)
- Restoration Movement (55)
- Sacraments (210)
- Baptism (180)
- Lord's Supper (34)
- Sexuality (119)
- Technology (1)
- Textual studies (591)
- 1 Corinthians (108)
- 1 John (19)
- 1 Kings (1)
- 1 Samuel (13)
- 1 Thessalonians (30)
- 2 Samuel (12)
- 2 Thessalonians (18)
- Acts (46)
- Colossians (13)
- Ephesians (18)
- Galatians (40)
- Hebrews (1)
- Luke (10)
- Philemon (2)
- Revelation (62)
- Romans (163)
- Sermon on the Mount (42)
- Theology (585)
- Afterlife, The (117)
- Atonement (54)
- Available Light (46)
- Calvinism (107)
- Election (60)
- God Is Not Fair (1)
- Neo-Calvinism (8)
- Perseverance (12)
- Searching for a Third Way (21)
- The Pope, the Salvation of the Jews and Calvinism (16)
- Christology (1)
- Connection of Church with Israel (74)
- Cruciform God (17)
- Gospel, What Is the? (47)
- Inerrancy and the Canon (14)
- Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (6)
- New Perspective (19)
- Pacifism (29)
- Soteriology (103)
- Salvation 2.0 (78)
- The Salvation of the Christians (9)
- The Salvation of the Jews (16)
- Universalism (11)
- Story theory (10)
- Theodicy (How God can allow bad things to happen) (7)
- Truth, What Is? (5)
- What Is Sin? (8)
- Thought Questions (83)
- Youth Ministry (10)
- Uncategorized (5,140)
Category Archives: Leadership
Litigation Between Brothers, part 2
There are a host of practical questions that arise in an effort to arbitrate a case between brothers. I don’t know all the answers, but here’s a stab at some answers– Who is my brother? This is, of course, the … Continue reading
Posted in Litigation Between Brothers, Uncategorized
Tagged All
Comments Off on Litigation Between Brothers, part 2
Litigation Between Brothers, part 1
In a frequently ignored passage, Paul commands us not to take our disputes to the secular courts but to resolve them within the church. (1 Cor. 6:1-8) If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it … Continue reading
Posted in Litigation Between Brothers, Uncategorized
Tagged All
Comments Off on Litigation Between Brothers, part 1
Advice for Two New Elders
Well, we ordained two new elders today—poor guys. I was supposed to join them for lunch today and offer some words of advice, but my old nemesis, kidney stones, intervened to keep that from happening. During those few hours when … Continue reading
Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 4: the ministries team concept
Our church’s ministries were overseen by “ministries team” for over a decade, and the team’s list of accomplishments is quite long. The concept doesn’t work in a very large church, for reasons to be discussed. And the concept won’t work … Continue reading
Posted in Organizing Your Church, Uncategorized
Tagged All
Comments Off on Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 4: the ministries team concept
Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 3: one model for deacons in a large church
As you may have surmised, my own church, with attendance of around 700, has struggled with how to fit our traditional teachings on deacons into our ministry structure. We went through a period where the church was run through monthly … Continue reading
Posted in Organizing Your Church, Uncategorized
Tagged All
Comments Off on Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 3: one model for deacons in a large church
Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 2: what do deacons do?
We have taught for a century that a scripturally organized church has a plurality of both elders and deacons. However, we seem not to have noticed that the Bible nowhere says what it is that deacons are to do. As … Continue reading
Posted in Organizing Your Church, Uncategorized
Tagged All
Comments Off on Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 2: what do deacons do?
Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 1: how growth changes how churches are organized
This series of posts is to suggest some ideas for how a church might be organized to do ministry. The fact is that as churches grow, they have to reorganize. Structures that work in a church of 200 likely won’t … Continue reading
Posted in Organizing Your Church, Uncategorized
Tagged All
Comments Off on Organizing Your Church for Ministry, part 1: how growth changes how churches are organized
A Covenant to Serve (for new elders)
Some years ago, when I was first ordained as an elder, the elders asked me to read, sign, and keep a copy of this document. The years have proven the wisdom of asking new elders to do this. The Bible … Continue reading
On the Training of Elders
We in the Churches of Christ are fond of saying that being an elder of a church is the most important job in the world. I think we may be right. Nothing more dramatically impacts the success of a congregation … Continue reading
On Selecting Elders, part 2
In part 1, we considered the Titus 2 and 1 Timothy 3 qualification lists. Here we consider other teachings the Bible gives us about selecting elders. We begin in Ephesians 4– (Eph. 4:11-13) It was he who gave some to … Continue reading
