How to Make Changes without Blowing It Apart
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“…what the church really said was, ‘Pastor, we’re dying on the vine. We need somebody who is old and can help us make changes without blowing it apart.’” - GARBC
Have We Done It Wrong All These Years?
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“ ‘The older generation is not dumb,’ Dave says, having learned a hard lesson. ‘It’s not like they did everything wrong and now we’re gonna do it so much better. We need to embrace things that worked in the past, work together, and make changes moving forward.’” - GARBC
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A Challenge for Christian Leaders About Predicting the Future
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“Get comfortable with uncertainty. The future likely involves ambiguity and change across the social, technological, and economic landscapes. We’re already experiencing changes faster than at any time in history” - Phil Cooke
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When You Are Done but God Is Not
Your oldest child heads off to college. A friend you led to Christ and have been discipling moves over 1,000 miles away. Your work contract ends and those you have seen and witnessed to daily for years fade from your life. Our time on earth often passes in cycles—family cycles, ministry cycles, and work cycles. We go from one phase to the next. What has been will be no more. What will be in the next phase is often unknown. Solomon wrote of these changes: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
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It’s Time for a Change: The Case for a New Ministry Model
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“We cannot continue to lament that our communities are becoming more secular while assuming a ministry model designed for a predominantly Christian culture will effectively reach them.” - Lifeway
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Unstable World, Stable God, Part 5: No Greater Force
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“He is never between a rock and a hard place. His holdings are never decreased by the advance of enemy armies. He is not moved; he is not threatened; he is not set back; he is not frustrated in any of his purposes.” - Olinger
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Unstable World, Stable God, Part 3: No Need to Grow
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“…we’re incomplete, undeveloped, short of our potential. We have things to learn. We can always get better at something…. One reason that God doesn’t change is that he doesn’t need any of what we’ve just described. He doesn’t need to grow; he doesn’t need to mature; he doesn’t need to get better at anything.” - Olinger
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Unstable World, Stable God, Part 1: It’s True
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“A lot of people are bewildered, scared, frustrated about all this change… The Scripture doesn’t ignore this problem, and it doesn’t try to ‘pep talk’ us out of our distress with platitudes. But it does offer two truths that can stabilize us despite the instability of our world.” - Olinger
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Nothing New Under the Sun
Reposted from August, 2021.
Judging from what I’m seeing, hearing and overhearing lately, a lot of conservative Christians are really worked up right now. Details vary, but the general feeling seems to be that recent developments in religious liberty, LGBTQ trends, mask and vaccine “mandates,” and Afghanistan mean all we hold dear in the U.S. is now collapsing.
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The World Is Changing. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Getting Worse.
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“There are probably two groups reading this article: The first are the complainers….The second, are those who, like me, are tired of hearing how great things used to be by those who came before us.” - Relevant
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