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KEEPING CHURCH SIMPLE – PART 2C Practical Implication #3: Learning to Question our Most Frequently Asked Questions! Meaning no disrespect to those who ask, I must admit that most of the questions that we are asked about simple church are the wrong questions! We humbly acknowledge this because these are the same questions we spent…

Here we are in Virginia. We arrived last night at about 5:00pm, just in time to rehearse, unpack our stuff and get ready to lead a bunch of teenagers in some musical worship. Nice. Did I mention the 5:00am wake up time? Or, the 10 hour drive with a baby who wouldn’t sleep? Or the…

KEEPING CHURCH SIMPLE – PART 2A Practical Implication #2: Learning to See Family as the Primary Image for Church There are two problems that emerge from trying to figure out “church.” First, when we try to figure out “church” we often start with a cultural assumption that church is a non-profit organization, or a “place…

KEEPING CHURCH SIMPLE – PART 2 PART II: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING OF CHURCH Practical Implication #1: Learning to see what is happening with the church globally. As Americans it is very hard for us to admit the facts that are now being widely reported to us: The church is growing faster in…

Don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but the Supreme Court decided this week that it would be OK for local governments to take private property against the will of the landowner to develop it as they see fit. In the case in question it is to create a commercial center that will raise tax…

KEEPING CHURCH SIMPLE – PART 1C I finally realized that the problem with the church was a personal problem! But intertwined in our structural and theological rediscovery of church was an even more primary piece to the puzzle. The puzzle had so many pieces in place, but the center piece was still missing. And as…

KEEPING CHURCH SIMPLE – PART 1B I then suspected that the problem with the church was a theological problem. I had only been in Las Vegas for a few months when my fellow Apex leaders and I began sensing some issues brewing beneath the surface of our seemingly “successful” church. These issues would have been…

KEEPING CHURCH SIMPLE – PART 1A I next suspected that the problem with the church was a cultural problem. After college, I spent five years involved in church planting in the New York City Metro Area. Part of that time I spent on a church-planting team in the New Jersey suburbs. The remainder of that…

A friend of ours who currently resides in Las Vegas, NV has been on an interesting journey over the past several years. He has chronicled a bit of that for a class he was teaching at a mid-western Bible college. He shared that paper with us when we were out there in October last year,…

We went to see the trains last night. Among many other family night events. This break from our previous busyness of gigging and serving and doing and being everywhere has been so amazing. So refreshing. So great for our family, I believe. We spend every evening either together as a family, exploring our town or…