The question for those of us in the West, and particularly in America, is this—Why have we chosen to construct such fragile church systems? Why do we build ministries that rely upon a single fallible leader, one dynamic speaker, or that require massive and unsustainable amounts of money? Our devotion to fragile systems means as the pace of cultural

“I shall not want,” he says. It is sometimes translated, “I lack nothing.” Dallas Willard, who used to raise sheep, noted that the verses that follow reinforce the message of contentment. Sheep typically do not lie down in green pastures, they eat green pastures. Likewise, sheep are expected to drink from quiet waters, not walk beside them. The ima

When I seek contentment in God’s blessings my wants only subside temporarily, and they soon return stronger than ever. When I learn to seek my satisfaction in God himself, however, the pleasures offered by the things of this world grow dim in comparison.

The theologian Paul Tillich declared that faith is “the state of being ultimately concerned.” He argued that because each person has something of ultimate concern that defines their life and identity, all people are religious—even the atheist. Every person has something in their life that functions as their god. For some, this god-function is occup

No, applying John 13 today isn’t about church leaders accepting menial tasks, but about church leaders accepting ridicule and embarrassment, about not being respected in society, and not needing the affirmation of their peers. It’s having their ambitions exposed and extinguished. It’s abandoning their desire for a bigger audience, larger platform,

1. Pause and collect yourself.


2. Process by naming your emotion.


3. Plan by assessing your skills, capabilities, and resources.


4. Proceed , treating your next steps as experiments and adjusting as you go.

hat if the government revokes our tax-exemption? What if youth sports take over Sunday morning? What if non-Christians get to pray before city council meetings? The inherent fragility of our churches, ministries, and schools helps explain, at least in part, why so many Christians carry so much anxiety today, and why we’re conditioned to see a threa

Consider our fixation on megachurches over the last 30 years. I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with megachurches, but have we been naive about their fragility? Like Goliath, their size and influence project an image of enduring strength, and yet a sad number of megachurches have been brought low in recent years by often small, for