Update on Renovate Church – Summer 2010

Hello everyone, It’s been a while since I’ve given a mass update on Renovate Church. This one is going to be a long one, but please bear with me. It’s worth it! Since we moved to Winchester and started Renovate Church, we’ve had some big wins. We’ve seen families restored to ministry, we’ve raised supplies [...]

Renovate Hosts CCAP Supply Drive

Hey everyone! We are doing a supply drive for CCAP. If you are unaware of CCAP, they are the Congregational Community Action Project. You can view their website at www.ccapwinc.org The event will be on Sunday June 13 from 11 am to 2 pm, at the Jaycee I Shelter in the Jim Barnett Park. The [...]

Tired of the Show – By Troy Hamby

This blog was written by my friend Troy Hamby, who is planting Sanctuary Church in the Baltimore suburbs. What he is saying, feeling, and dealing with mirror closely our situation here with Renovate. Enjoy! Stolen/borrowed from http://troyhamby.com/2010/03/20/im-tired-of-the-show/ ———– If you ever want to experience the greatest stress imaginable, plant a church! We are only in the [...]

Spiritual Conversations

I was on the phone with one of our guys at Renovate today on the way home from work. We were discussing ways to have spiritual conversations with our non-Christian friends. We both agree that it’s hard to get around to talking about God with people who don’t believe or aren’t interested in church. These [...]

Does our Piety Keep us from following Jesus?

I’m reading an article from the Winter 2010 edition of Leadership Journal.. Some of you may have seen this. On page 15, there is an article regarding a pastor who decided to “live like Jesus” for 1 year. I encourage you all to check it out. The last section of the article asks him “Are [...]

What Should I Tell Them?

I’ve been listening to the song, “Should I Tell Them?” by a Christian music artist by the name of Shaun Groves today. I’m posting the lyrics below so you can read them, then I’ll do some follow-up commentary. Walking with you is not without hazards Trippings this traveler’s curse Price paid for falling is more [...]

Book Review – Finding Organic Church by Frank Viola

The subtitle of this book is “A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities.” I’ll say that is a correct subtitle, if you agree with Viola’s approach to church and church planting. I will start this blog the same way Viola starts his book, and that is disagreeable. He lost me when he [...]

I get it… Church SUCKS!

So as we go on this journey of starting a new church in Winchester, the biggest common denominator for why people are not going to church is “Church People”. I may get slammed on this one, because many of my friends and colleagues are “church people.” By that, I mean people that regularly attend church [...]

Perseverance

Ahh.. Perseverance.. It’s a word we hear a lot about, but don’t always give much thought to. I was speaking with our church planting coach today, and this subject came up. He mentioned a passage in James that is talking about faith and perseverance. I’ll come back to this… Back in February, Shelley and I [...]

I Felt Dirty

I was recently in a church setting, surrounded by many people that I have known for quite some time now, and had the chance to connect with someone I haven’t seen in a few years. Being the outgoing person I am, I went up to this person, said “Hello” and attempted to initiate a conversation. [...]