I read of a Southern Baptist Church in Florida which is growing through an internet membership. Despite concerns that those who are members via internet will not be able to really connect with the church, Flamingo Road Church is determined to make it work. They insist that they are, indeed, "faithful members" who interact with the church by watching videos and through onli...

What happens when someone argues that their own private times with God are more important than corporate gatherings of the church as a whole?Each of us, I'm sure, have heard those who have questioned the necessity of corporate worship, thinking that it is less "spiritual" than their own private times of reading and meditation.Well, R. Scott Clark, professor of Church Histo...

During the time of my first church plant in another state, we had a statewide meeting of church planters during which a representative of the North American Mission Board provided us with some software that would help us with the administration of our churches. The software included membership tracking, time management helps, etc.But also included in the software was a col...

On November 11, 2011, Wayne Rice, one of the founders of the largest, most influential student ministry organization, Youth Specialties, confessed: "We got what we wanted. We turned youth ministry into the toy department of the church. Churches now hire professionals to lead youth ministry. We got relevance but we created a generation of teenagers who are a mile wide and a...

While there is no one particular form that we can point to as being the only form for genuine worship, there are some forms which are better than others at being faithful to what God has called for in our worship of Him.We should take warning from the story of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu found in Leviticus chapter 10. They had just been installed as priests and took it u...

In other words, why do we gather on Sunday mornings in the first place? Various people may answer in various ways, but to get at the answer we cannot simply take a poll, we have to look to see what the Bible says. And what we find is Paul speaking to the Christians in Corinth concerning their weekly gathering saying, "So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifesta...

Yesterday, Tim Challies wrote a post he called "The Worst Consequence of Skipping Church." In it he articulated something that I reminded the members of my previous churches often from the pulpit: "Sunday morning is not about having some one-on-one time with God, it is about the gathering of God's people together to worship Him as one, to encourage one another, and stir on...

An excerpt rom a recent e-newsletter by James Kushiner, an editor of Touchstone Magazine: Much of the demise of Christianity in the West occurred during a period when Christians failed to notice, or if they did, failed to respond to the shallowness of what passed for Christian faith in the mid- and late- twentieth century. Though not all Christians failed to notice it. It...