Vacation and Church

On Saturday, my wife and I returned from a week in Atlanta. I’m not one to spiritualize everything, but as I thought about what to write for this week’s post, a couple of thoughts came to me about church from the week that was. So, I want to share these thoughts and some pictures with you.

A Defense of the Sermon (part 2)

defense of the sermon, sermon, why sermons matter

“Chad, Rachel needs to talk to you,” said Shannon1, a long time Christian and faithful attender of our church. I looked and saw Rachel standing teary eyed by the wall. “Ok, just give me one minute” I responded as I hurried to greet a couple of new people at our Sunday Gathering. A few minutes later I was standing in the back of the church with Shannon and Rachel…

Simple Church

simple church, church, Wilsonville OR, blog

The book Simple Church greatly impacted how I pastor Creekside Bible Church. The book offers data showing that when churches make clear a simple discipleship process and focus on doing a few things well (rather than trying to do a lot of things), they are better for it (primarily in numerical growth). Admittedly, I had a predisposition towards liking the contents of this book. I am an avid/outspoken fan of Apple products. Apple has become one of the most successful companies in the world by making things simple for customers and by being simple as a company – focusing on … Read More

A Defense of the Sermon

I recently had a conversation with an awesome, God-loving, Christian man in which he expressed something that seemingly is thought and felt by more and more Christians everyday. In the middle of an hour long conversation on church, he said, and I paraphrase, “You can find a million good sermons online. So, when a church gathers, preaching isn’t that important of an activity. Instead, we ought to be focused on prayer and worship.” Due to their clear focus on Scriptural evidence, most of the blog posts I read on the topic of church are written by people who are part … Read More

Weekly Communion (part 2)

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In my first post on weekly communion, I made a case for frequent partaking of the ordinance being the practice of the churches that existed contemporaneously to the writing of Christian Scripture. I think the evidence I presented is persuasive, but must admit that nobody can definitively declare how often communion was practiced in the earliest churches according to the Bible – this is why it is still debated 2,000 years later. However, it is virtually undeniable that…

The Church, My Mother

church as mother, church, Creekside Bible

I recently read a blog post called I Love the Church. I Hate the Church. The post offers a pretty common sentiment:  The church is great, but  the author has been hurt by it. So, while she understands and loves the goodness of the church, part of her hates it. I felt a need to respond and did so in the following way: “I completely understand where you are coming from in this post. However, I think we do a disservice to the Kingdom when we use the word “hate” in regards to the church which is the bride, temple, … Read More

Weekly Communion (part 1)

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The question of how often communion “should” be taken is often discussed. Here my point is not to attempt to answer this question, but instead my goal is to explain some of the reasons we, the leadership of Creekside Bible Church, have decided to have weekly communion in our gatherings.

Biblical Evidence

The first reason that we have decided to celebrate communion weekly is that the New Testament seems to show that the early church partook of this sacred meal every time they gathered. The first reference to this is just after we read of the beginning of the church in Acts 2…

A Year at Church

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“When you want to change culture, remember, slow is fast.” – Joey Bonifaco Creekside Bible Church has, for as long as I can remember, desired to do God’s will and has been good at uplifting one another in the midst of difficulty. The pastors who have gone before me have laid this fondation. But two years ago, when I took over as pastor, there was still much that needed to change. And to be honest, to say all was not going well would be a significant understatement. We were shrinking numerically, struggling financially, and lacked biblical unity. We were in desperate … Read More

Church As Family

church as, church family, church as family, creekside bible church, wilsonville

A week ago I finished a sermon series called “Church As…” The series explored four metaphors that the book of Ephesians uses for church: Bride, temple, family, and body. While all of these metaphors have profound implications, I want to further share my thoughts on church as family. While Christians sometimes speak of the “church family,” the significance of this metaphor is rarely experienced within local congregations. The familial language of church has lost its value in the midst of familiarity. In the earliest days of Christianity this does not seem to be the case. People used the terms “brother” … Read More

Children in Church (part 4)

children in church, church, Creekside Bible Church, creekside, children's church

One of the primary concerns I hear when discussing the proposition of keeping children in church is that it “won’t work.” The reasons for this seem to be many. Here are three that have been directly said to me: 1) It will be distracting for others in the congregation 2) Kids won’t understand or learn anything in the service. 3) It will prevent the church from growing since their is an expectation for children’s church. These concerns are important and must be carefully considered. In this post I want to respond to each of them. “People will be distracted.“ I agree … Read More