Posts Tagged: "Megachurch"

Thankful Notes: The Journey Cover Band

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Thankful Notes

Last night I received a text from my mother-in-law, “Have you quoted Jacques Philippe before? Seems to me you have. I’m reading his book Interior Freedom. It’s what you preach, and extremely good.”

I reply, “I don’t think I have, but I’d be happy to borrow this book from you when you’re done with it :)

She says, “Sure. A Catholic lady I sometimes walk with loaned it to me. She’s in no rush to get it back.”

Me, “Oh, I thought it was yours. That’s OK. I’ll look for Philippe books from second-hand places.”

She says, “Oh please take it. If you drive up, I’ll run out and give it to you. I’ve got a whole bag from her. She’s old like me, very relaxed.”

Me, “I’m at home tonight.”

She says, “Oh, OK. I’ll drop it off at church tomorrow. I could hardly put the book down.”

Not long after I arrived at the office in the morning, I heard a car pull in. Looking out the window, I recognized my mother-in-law’s car. I run out to keep Camper from jumping on her (Camper is on a long leash between the buildings and is on the prowl for any living being to jump on and slobber all over).

My mother-in-law hands me the book and I say “thanks” and she’s off.

It feels nice to be known.

That someone read something and think, “This is what Brian is all about” is, I don’t know, affirming of my existence. Is it weird to be thankful for… Read More

The Liberating Truth of Limits

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

In two months, two high-profile megachurch celebrity pastors have resigned from their churches. What’s going on? Well, it’s easy to become unbalanced and unhealthy. It’s easy to overextend and heap way too much significance on the shoulders of one individual.

It’s easy to mix mission (what God is calling us to do) with ambition (what I feel like I need to do in order to be significant, someone, enough).

“Because then I would be enough.”

These are the words of Jim Carrey – presenting at the Golden Globes – making fun of himself and the whole spectacle that is celebrity award shows…

He said… Read More

Why I Don’t Want Us To Be A Megachurch. And Why I Do

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

What do you think of when you hear the word mega?

If you’re into the lottery, maybe “Mega Millions,” right? Or if you’re a fan of the Transformer’s franchise, “Megatron” comes to mind.

Mega is a unit prefix in the metric system – denoting a factor of one million.

For example, with digital cameras, we talk about mega pixels: an 8-mega pixel camera can record up to 8 million pixels.

megapixels

Mega is also used to describe the explosive power of nuclear weapons – as “megatons,” and the frequency of electromagnetic radiation – as “megahertzs.”

But what we’re talking about today is church… Read More