“The church is not supposed to function as a rain barrel, or a collection tank. The church is a place from which the water is supposed to flow everywhere else.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 16
A Brief Word With My Past Self
Back in 2015, I said this, and it has recently been drawn to my attention by a few of you. For examples of that, see today’s Letters section. In addition, Warren Throckmorton has speculated that I changed my mind because I saw a golden opportunity to ride a wave of conservative discontent. Here is the …
Letters About Guess What?
Letter to the Editor: Hi Pastor Doug! I apologize if you’ve already made this joke before, but if not, it would make me extremely happy if you signed off on an article where you discuss ...
Tools as Wealth
“Technology is therefore a form of wealth. The reason this is important is because the Bible says very little about technology as such, but it gives us a great deal of blunt and pointed teaching on the subject of wealth. If we learn how to deal with wealth scripturally, then we will have learned how to deal with technology. This also makes it obvious that these problems are not new problems at all”
Ploductivity, p. 11
A Larger Book Allowance, Yay!
“Some preachers are always preaching the last book which they have read, and their congregations always find it out. The feeling of superficialness and thinness attaches to all they do . . . If I am right in this idea, then it will follow that the preacher’s life must be a life of large accumulation”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 122
Because They Already Bought Another Kind of Insurance
“There are people who go to respectable churches because it seems like a good place to network with people who might want to buy insurance.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 12
Three Chess Moves Ahead
Introduction: For various reasons, I consider this post as one of the more important things I have written. Not to overstate it, or to puff it up, or to give way to ungodly hype, but I do believe ...
Audio Reading of Post
Maxwell’s Hammer
“We have a perennial temptation to locate sin as resident in the stuff. Some refuse to see sin in the stuff, and therefore conclude there must not be any sin. Those are the technophiles. Others see clearly that there is sin, and so they conclude that it must be in the stuff, though maybe it is not in the earlier stuff. These are the technophobes . . . Maxwell’s silver hammer did come down upon somebody’s head, but we go astray when we blame the silver hammer. The problem was in Maxwell.”
Ploductivity, p. 10
What the Building Says
“When the saints start to come in for the service, the building should say, ‘Shhh . . . the church is here now.’ The saints should not say, ‘Shhh . . . you’re in church now. The building is not God’s mausoleum”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 9
Two Dollops, Please
