Over the last several years it seems as though our society has begun to value division more and more.  Turn on the tv and you can not help but see the talking heads rallying their troops to their side of the day’s argument.  While divisiveness sells tv advertising, I think it also begins to diminish our abilities to resolve conflict amongst ourselves. This morning I was reading through Galatians 2:1-10 and was struck by the way [...]

Example #1 – The Visitor I was cleaning up the Sunday School party yesterday at Valley (the institutional congregation I serve) when one of the youth brought a visitor to talk with me.  She was a thin woman in her mid forties with two teenage girls in tow.  She started the conversation off with, “Hi, I was wondering what programs you have for youth.”  She didn’t make any attempt to introduce herself or shake my [...]

Matt note: I have been a fan of Ed Cyzewski’s writing for quite some time.  His blog In a Mirror Dimly has been on my daily reading list for quite some time.  Last week he began writing on ministry burnout, something which I have both seen and experienced in my time serving churches.  Ed has graciously allowed me to repost his series here.  Enjoy. Pastors aren’t the only ones who burn out from church and [...]

Like I said in my last post, I’ve been working this idea out recently and it has helped me explain a lot of stuff so I thought I would share it. Over the last three years I’ve had to defend my missional thinking a lot.  What’s been strange is that when I explain it people are usually cool with the theology.  It is the practice they fight with. Believers love talking about how… …God is on a [...]

Today marks the beginning of my annual pilgrimage to the outer banks of North Carolina.  My family has spent Thanksgiving week in Frisco, NC since I was in fifth grade and it is one of the highlights of my year.  This has been a pretty tumultuous year for my wife and I and we are excited to have the opportunity to get away, unplug, and hopefully catch some fish this next week.  With that in [...]

I think we have all been in a gathering of people taking prayer requests when someone says something along the lines of “and pray that I will have the strength to resist temptation as I go about the normal pattern of my life this week.”  I cringe when I hear that.  I cringe because it always makes me feel like the person asking for that is already planning on acting on that temptation that they [...]

Early this week I read an article on the disappearance of deep thinking and sacred space over at The 99%.  The message of this post has been floating around in the back of my head ever since.  I suspect that it’s refusal to leave my thoughts has to do with two things: my impending vacation time, and my dread of the Christmas season. I believe that we all know that we all inherently know that we are [...]

Every Tuesday morning I join with a group of men waaaay to early in the morning to study the Bible together.  This morning we started to walk through the book of Galatians together, and I was struck by something in the first chapter: Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:7 Paul is concerned by what is slipping into the faith that he had [...]

Matt Note: I am excited to introduce my friend Jeff Elkins to the churchthought community.  You can read a description about Jeff below, but what he doesn’t say is that Jeff flat out thinks well.  You could burn through many hours camped out in a coffee shop talking church with Jeff and come away feeling like you have been drinking from a fire hydrant.  I am honored that Jeff is willing to spend his Monday’s [...]

When we are young we instinctively know the power of the word why.  “Why is the sky blue” turns into asking why when told to do something.  Somewhere along the way we buy into the idea that “because I said so” or “because that is the way we do it” is a legitimate answer and begin to ask why less and less. While answering the question of why can be frustrating at times, it is [...]