church – 300 words a day

I want to listen

We’ve got a cell phone remembering challenge in our church services right now. Three times in four weeks. Once with the person unable to figure out how to make it stop. (None of them have been quite as odd as the rooster crowing ringer that went off awhile back when I was preaching. I was […]

by Jon Swanson

But sometimes it’s hard to go to church.

Responding to this survey, one of you asked: What do you do if you don’t like to go to church on Sunday mornings? What do you do if every time you try and go to church the service makes you cry so you get embarrassed and don’t go back? What do you do if someone […]

by Jon Swanson

8 ways to find a church

That, of course, is the wrong title. Perhaps it should be “8 suggestions for deciding whether I want to attach myself to a group of people who are calling themselves a church, knowing that I can’t blame “them” for not measuring up if I am not willing to commit myself to learning how to be […]

by Jon Swanson

inside and outside

The reason that outside isn’t so bad is that inside isn’t so good. When Jesus said that people who didn’t respond to three distinct, thoughtful, caring challenges to their behavior needed to leave the church, He was intending was that the threat of having to leave the warmth of community in the church would be […]

by Jon Swanson

church, going to

(Matthew 2:1-12) Following Jesus always involves other people. Which is really frustrating. When we are working out what we believe (and sometimes whether we believe), having to be around other people who seem absolutely sure of …. something…feels funny, feels risky. I understand. Imagine some guys. They decide to follow God. More accurately, these guys […]