Sarah, a good friend, has stopped attending church. This was not a matter of a loss of faith or a desire to rebel in some way. An intelligent and well informed university graduate in her thirties, the reasons she gave were these. The church in its life, culture and preaching had nothing much to do […]
My friend has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). He has also been an effective missionary for about 20 years. He has recently emailed a large number of friends and colleagues to make known his OCD which mostly till now he has kept hidden. Notice that I did not write that he is OCD. He is not […]
Consider these recent critical developments: 2016 was a year of great political upheaval in several countries which has resulted in an even increased polarization between people in those countries and between countries. Narrowly defined nationalism is rising up against the globalization that is seen to be the cause of so many problems.[1] Hate speech and […]
Ask a hundred church leaders, “What is the essence of Christian Discipleship?” and possibly you will get around 100 different answers! There will be much in common for most of them but ambiguity about the nature of discipleship seems to be the norm. What is the central core of discipleship? In an average multi-everything International […]
Like me, I am sure you have a preferred approach to preaching. Is it expository or thematic or something else?? Most approaches have good arguments supporting them which is why the debates arguing for one being better than the others never seem to reach a conclusion.[1] In your International Church (IC) there are people with […]
Preaching Towards Mission: Which World View? Every preacher does it. No exceptions, we all present a world view either through what we say or, more often, through what we do not say. Here, the concept of world view being considered is not about some of those fundamental or basic structures of culture, such as shame/honour, […]
An International Church Vision for The Practice of Unity: A Missional Imperative. International Churches (ICs) are communities in which the vision of every tribe, nationality, language and peoples is happening already. ICs therefore are microcosms of the future. ICs are living witnesses to the world, and to the rest of the body of Christ, that […]
Challenging the Tribalism of Your IC Leadership: A Vision for the Practice of Unity. Which Christian tribe do you represent? Is your International Church (IC) leadership embracing of the diversity of evangelical life and practice or do you incline more to being an IC that better suits those of a particular denomination, or politics,or nationality, […]
The International Church, the Over-zealous, and the Unity of the Cross. They come from everywhere,bringing with them every variety of authentic Christian faith imaginable. From the exuberant to the solemn, from free-wheeling discipleship to the very prescriptive, our international churches (ICs) embrace them all. Or do they? In the preceding article,[1] I wrote some strong […]
Tribalism in the International Church: With Four Leadership Priorities for Unity and Mission. Tribalism is a little too common across the evangelical church (and beyond) bringing particular challenges for leaders of International Churches and Fellowships (ICs). Many, both leaders and church members, have loyalties based on allegiance to particular positions on the issues of the […]