Willow Creek, the poster child for seeker sensitive ministry, is no longer trying to be so hip. At the recent Catalyst Conference, a Willow teaching pastor, Darren Whitehead, surprised us with the new Willow. Thirty years ago Bill Hybels launched Willow and the “Seeker Sensitive” movement from a theater. It was all about being fishers [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Valuable life goal’
Salty or Worthless
Posted in Culture, Empowering Leadership, Relevant Ministry, tagged Connecting, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, Purpose, Valuable life goal on October 19, 2011 | 3 Comments »
14 Ways to Raise the Bar
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged clarity, community, Connecting, Consumerism, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, Missional Ministry, Relevant Ministry, Valuable life goal, vision on September 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Over 100 years ago, Charles Spurgeon proclaimed every Christian here is either a missionary or an imposter. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the Kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. That kind of challenge has been [...]
A Better Date
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Relevant Ministry, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, Connecting, legitimacy, love, Purpose, Valuable life goal on August 6, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Friday is typically date night for me and my wife. But after another intense week it’s painfully difficult to slow down and simply be present. Sadly, I can be a poor date. Could this be how Christ and our pastor feel about us on Sundays? With hectic schedules, 100 channels, 24-hour news, Facebook, Twitter, and [...]
Do Young People Desire Anguish?
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Authentic, building momentum, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Faith, Leadership, legitimacy, Purpose, Relevant Ministry, Valuable life goal, vision on July 14, 2011 | 6 Comments »
They may frustrate you with their expectations or intimidate you with their social connections. They’re “Digital Natives” while we struggle as “Digital Immigrants”. What they want from church is very different as well. Here is research data from Dave Tonen regarding what the 18-30 year old crowd want from you and I at church: Community [...]
Yes, I’m Addicted
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Evolving Culture, tagged Authentic, Bahler Family Doing Life, community, Connecting, connection, Consumerism, Hope, Valuable life goal on June 21, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I’m an addict. I must confess. Maybe you are as well? I took the Father’s Day challenge and unhooked from the web all day Sunday. I even let my smart phone battery go dead. And it was, well…lonely. For 24 hours I lost connection with all my on-line chatter. No news, Facebook, email, text messages, [...]
Father’s Day Challenge
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Evolving Culture, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, love, Purpose, Valuable life goal on June 8, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Media consultant Phil Cooke reports that the research has been done and the verdict is in (though we hardly needed it to tell us): We are hopelessly addicted to our digital devices. So much so, in fact, that some psychologists are pushing to have “Internet Addiction” broadly classified as a clinical disorder. Take a look [...]
Taking Risks
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, Connecting, connection, Consumerism, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, Leadership, love, missional, Purpose, Relevant Ministry, Valuable life goal on May 11, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Ten months ago, we met our 12-year-old daughter in China. We were scared and overwhelmed but driven by the vision that we were being called to stretch beyond our own comfort. Francis Chan’s words were ringing in our ears: God hasn’t called us to comfort. We’re called to take big risks so that if He [...]
A Careful Man
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Authentic, Bahler Family Doing Life, clarity, communication, Empowering Leadership, Hope, Leadership, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal, vision on March 18, 2011 | 17 Comments »
My dad passed away last night. He suffered from Alzheimer’s and deteriorated rapidly over the past few weeks. It was a blessing to have my mom and all eight of us kids around his bed as his breathing grew slower and slower. It was a special time as we told stories and sang old hymns [...]
Generational Tension
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged alignment, Authentic, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, Relevant Ministry, trust, Valuable life goal on October 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Practically every church we work with is wrestling with generational tension. Check out this timely insight from the recent Catalyst Conference. Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) nailed it: We have a spiritual enemy that wants to divide us by denominations, so that we don’t work together. And I also have a hunch he wants [...]
Money Can Buy Happiness
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Connecting, Hope, Leadership, Purpose, Valuable life goal on September 23, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The Bible clearly tells us that money can’t buy happiness. So why do we still pursue careers and promotions as if it can? Forbes magazine recently reported research from the University of British Columbia showing that once we reach the median income in the US of about $60,000, the happiness we get from additional income [...]
Rehearsing is for Cowards
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged building momentum, connection, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal on September 16, 2010 | 2 Comments »
…That’s what Seth Godin says. He challenges us to be explorers. In his words, A well-rehearsed performance will go without a hitch. But an explorer seeks the hitches, because hitches are the fissures and chasms that help us leap forward. Many of us were taught to pursue a well-rehearsed life. To do that requires focus, [...]
The Most Important Person
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, communication, Connecting, Consumerism, Faith, Hope, Leadership, legitimacy, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal, vision on July 16, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Pastor and sociologist Tony Campolo explains the concept of “The Looking Glass Self” like this: We see ourselves as we believe the most important person in our life sees us. Tony tells us that if we make Christ the most important person in our life and recognize that he loved us enough to die a [...]
Gotcha!
Posted in Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Authentic, Bahler Family Doing Life, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, legitimacy, love, Purpose, Valuable life goal on June 18, 2010 | 10 Comments »
We found out yesterday that our “Gotcha Date” is July 12th. That’s the date we actually pick up our new 12-year-old daughter in China. “But why the term Gotcha?” I asked Sara Lang at Madison Adoption. Sara explained that at age 14 the Chinese government considers orphans adults, which terminates their availability for adoption as [...]
Too Easy…Too Secure?
Posted in Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, Leadership, Valuable life goal on April 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
What do we do with thoughts like: 20% of us own 80% of the world’s stuff. Is that OK? (Claiborne) Woe to you who are complacent…Amos 6:1 (Chan) We pin on politicians what we and the church should be doing ourselves. (Claiborne) Nothing is more important than to hear these two words when we die…”Well [...]
We Want to Participate
Posted in Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged alignment, Connecting, Consumerism, creative spirit, Evolving Culture, Hope, Leadership, missional, Missional Ministry, Purpose, Valuable life goal on March 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Many years ago there was an invalid man who laid by the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. It was believed that the water could heal but the man had no one to help him get in, so for 38 painful years he waited for a chance until Jesus came by. Many of us have unused [...]
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