There was a couple who were having serious issues in their marriage, mostly because of financial difficulties. After a stewardship sermon at church, they went home and had a huge discussion. They decided to sell their house and buy a smaller one. They did just that, and saved their marriage. In fact, their whole lives were changed.

That experience reminded me of how important preaching is, because what happens if people really believe what we are saying and begin to order their lives around it? Imagine if they do that with sermons about money.

I recently sat through a three-hour service, with well-behaved children and a one-hour sermon in the package—and that after an hour-long Sunday School class. Only the occasional sermon is devoted to tithing, and yet 80% of the congregation tithes. But one feature in particular caught my attention: in 45 minutes of non-stop singing (worship and [...]

The first plenary speaker this morning was Ken Blanchard, founder of Lead Like Jesus.  He shared his story of coming to faith as a leadership consultant and author, when he learned “everything I had taught and written about leadership, Jesus already did.”  He described these stages of leadership development, with stories of Jesus forming his [...]

This morning’s two sessions with Francis Chan were the last of the Exponential pre-conference.  Chan is the high-profile lead pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California.  Just two days ago, however, he announced his resignation, and this topic dominated his powerful message.
Chan shared his upcoming transition as a response to Jesus’ call to deny [...]

The second speaker at Monday’s RightNow pre-conference was Matt Chandler.  Before this conference, I knew little about Matt except his recent cancer diagnosis.  Matt pastors The Village Church in Texas.
He began with a warning that much of what passes for Christianity today is actually a Moralistic Deism.  He says this has occurred because the gospel [...]

Harold Percy was recently the speaker at the annual Institute of Evangelism dinner at Wycliffe College. This is the text of the talk he gave that evening.
It is no secret that our churches across this country are generally having a difficult time connecting with people and attracting them into the lives of their worshipping [...]

I’m not a big video-gamer.  With that said, I need to make a confession: it’s not because I’m anti-video game but because my parents knew full well that my addictive personality would have attached itself to video games and would never have let go.  So, I was never allowed to own a game system growing [...]

On Monday nights in Toronto’s Bloor West Village, the Yellow Griffin Pub’s upstairs room hosts “God at the Pub”.  A ministry of Runnymede Community Church for seven years, “God at the Pub” is the result of the church leadership’s fervent prayer and missional impulse to lower the “barriers to entry” posed by their traditional church [...]