Most of us in this room have had enough exposure to one or more local churches to know this: that life in a local church can be messy. Show
Churches are to be the places where grace reigns. They are to be a foretaste of the glory of the community of the new creation to come. They are to be a community that is becoming more like Jesus. But other churches are filled with Christians. But Christians are each along the path at different points. We are all still fallen. And when a local church has a season of difficulty, or has pockets of disunity... We might think, ''if we could only return to what it was like in the first century.'' We might think, ''if only we could return to the churches of the New Testament.'' And the problem with thinking like that is that it wouldn't solve our problem. We don't need to read many of the letters to the churches in the New Testament to find churches with problems. They were messy at times, some more than others. We're reading in 2 Timothy this Summer. The Apostle Paul is writing this letter to him about his ministry. Timothy has been one of the pastors at Ephesus for a number of years. And his church is messy. There are problems. There are challenges. There are difficulties. And Paul is writing to encourage and affirm Timothy, and challenge him to keep pressing on in the work. So, this letter is address to Timothy in a particular context. Timothy is a pastor who was probably just a few years older than me. And he has been in his ... There are 25390 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Originally published February 13, 2017 on landoncoleman.com. Share this:Like this:Like Loading... When churches struggle or begin to die, it’s easy to point fingers at leadership. If only the sermons were more engaging, or the music was different, or perhaps if there were more ministries available, then people would come in abundance! But what if we, the congregants, are the reason for a stagnating or declining congregation? As part of God’s body assigned with the gospel message and the task of growing His church, what we do or don’t do can have a huge impact. Here are 10 ways we may be destroying our church. Editor, Novelist, and speaker Jennifer Slattery has a passion for helping women discover, embrace, and live out who they are in Christ. As the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries, (http://whollyloved.com) she and her team put on events at hosting churches designed to help women rest in their true worth and live with maximum impact. She has five novels out with New Hope Publishers and is the managing and acquisitions editor of Guiding Light Women’s Fiction, an imprint with Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall dates with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Visit with Jennifer online at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud.com and connect with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JenSlatte. Photo credit: ©Thinkstock/PHA-RAON Read more
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