Category Archives: Institutional Church

The Executive Director Position and Adaptive Change

The withdrawal of the candidate for the Executive Director position in the CRC has prompted various discussions about the structure, purpose and meaning of the denomination. This is a good discussion to have. For this discussion I want to distinguish … Continue reading

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church | Tagged | 3 Comments

A Quick and Dirty History of the CRC Denominational Story

It’s easy when we lift our heads up from our local and classical ministries, when viewing this thing way off in GR to ask “how did that happen?” The ED position, together with the BOT emerged and was shaped by … Continue reading

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church, Saved Blog Comments | 2 Comments

Moving Beyond Attracting the Dormant Zombies of Christendom

What does Madison Avenue Have to Do with Jerusalem? In the late 90′s I was a pastor reading business books with my missional cohort in our Sacramento mission field. We were attending conferences at Willow Creek and Saddleback trying to … Continue reading

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church, Missional | 2 Comments

Of Starbucks and Calvinism, The Difference Between What I Want and What I Need

Got this wonderful link from my friend Eric Dirksen on The Starbucks Lifestyle. It nicely illuminated the heart of the consumer mindset. It also struck me how badly I’ve wanted my church to be as welcoming, comfortable, popular, accepting, popular, … Continue reading

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It Takes A Religion for a Community to Forgive

A friend recently turned me on to South Park. He told me about their religion episodes and one of the ones I saw was the Scientology episode. A ways into the episode the South Park character that is discovered to … Continue reading

Posted in Culture commentary, Institutional Church | 2 Comments

On Direct and In-Direct

A nice parable from “The Messy Middle” on how this expat learned indirectness, a common cultural trait of some Asian cultures. The dance of direct vs. indirect is such a funny one. I see it played out in churches all … Continue reading

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The End of Christian Retail

This week on my new favorite podcast, the Phil Vischer Podcast, they had an interesting discussion on the end of Christian retail. The part in question is the first 12 minutes of podcast #10. Skye Jethani made the point via … Continue reading

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Christian should relate to Mormons like Christians related to Samaritans

Richard Mouw continues his long term, thankless work of trying to help evangelicals think about Mormons. Relating to Mormons is not a simple thing. Christians are not very clear or well informed on Mormon belief. Mormons are culturally and religiously … Continue reading

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What Did Jesus Start?

Within a few minutes of each other I read how confidence in organized religion is down in America and I read a lovely piece on CRC Voices about the interaction between a local pastor and a girl coming in needing … Continue reading

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The Banality of Ministry

Lottery Winners Church planters are an exciting breed of cat. They are filled with enthusiasm and drive. They overflow with visions of the church finally done right and whole cities renewed. In most cases this lasts until they actually start, … Continue reading

Posted in Institutional Church, On the way to Sunday's sermon, Wisdom | Tagged | 2 Comments