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Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments” (John 14:15 God’s Word).

Depending on what you are this will mean different things. Are you a legalist? anarchist? rebel? groupie? bohemian? servant? controller? Read more…

Over the years I have heard many stories about how parents compelled their children to behave “in church”. Anything from a little pinch on the bottom, taking them out for a good “talking to” and including threats made at home about what will happen if they don’t behave.

I do wonder. Read more…

Has your congregation ever searched for a pastor?

In many denominations the search includes building a profile or description of the congregation, the community it serves and writing a job description. These things can take as long as months before being approved.

Then the position is advertised. Applications are assessed. Interviews follow. The pastor may be invited to “preach for the call” or committee members may travel to where the pastor now serves to critique worship and report back to home base. Read more…

Love, the kind Jesus talks about, is not a feeling.

Love, according to the One Who Loved Enough to Prove it on the Cross, is action in a lifestyle. Read more…

For five years I served as the Conference Parliamentarian. That meant I was the expert in church law, and if any question or challenge arose it was my function to immediately give the President reference to the relevant section of church law in order to make a ruling. So I am intimately acquainted with the hundreds of pages of laws and by-laws and regulations and protocols and practices and policies of The United Church of Canada. Serving as an Anglican priest I became familiar with canon law. Serving in a Presbyterian congregation I learned the Book of Forms (for all the good it did me).

But none of these even reflect, much less constitute, the divine expectation for the Body of Christ. Read more…