Witness

August 31, 2018

Gen Z and Their View of the Church: a Love/Hate Relationship

We have been exploring in a series of blogs what our new youth culture, Gen Z (born 1999 to 2015) thinks about life, God, the world, gender identity, and truth.  Today we take a few moments to see what they think about the Church.  There are positive things that Gen Z’ers see in the Church, but there are also deeply disturbing issues within them about the Church that should sound the alarm for any church leader seeking to reach and to disciple them in the gospel. I’m grateful for the resources from the Barna Group (their book Barna Trends 2018) and Impact […]
February 15, 2017

What Post-Christian Thinking People Want: 3) Passion and Compassion

Back in my youth group days, Sunday nights were regularly spent in gatherings known as “Singspiration.”  One of the popular songs that we sang around the guitar was the familiar, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” I believe you can take that song line and have a robust discussion around a number of topics that could fill-in the blank: “They’ll know we are Christians by our ________.”  To stimulate our thinking, let me suggest a BIG topic in our post-Christian times: passion and compassion.  Post-Christian minded people often pay attention to people who have zeal for something/someone and […]
January 19, 2017

“We Saw Clearly That The Lord Was With You”: How the Church Should Act in a Post-Christian Culture

Every Wednesday, I enjoy participating in a Bible study with a sizable group of passionate men who love to study the Scriptures and to talk about its application to daily life.  For the last few months, we have studied and discussed the Book of Genesis.  This week we found ourselves applying the truths of Genesis 26 to our lives. Mind you, Genesis 26 is not the “hottest” chapter in this narrative-rich book.  It doesn’t command attention like the Creation account, the marriage of Adam and Eve, the Fall, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham’s life and events.  But in the […]