I recently had the wonderful experience of visiting the Eric Liddell Museum in Tianjin, China. You may remember Liddell as the Christian athlete whose story is told in the movie Chariots of Fire. As I walked through the displays, I could almost hear the theme song playing in my mind, and I wanted to go outside and run around the track he built for the community. Eric Liddell’s story is inspiring. It not only makes me want to run; it makes me want to serve Jesus more. That is what inspiration...

Comedian Jackie Mason once said, “It's no longer a question of staying healthy. It's a question of finding a sickness you like.” When I first read that quote, I laughed, but then I sobered a bit when I considered its truth. It’s easy to find our comfort zone in a hurt, habit, or hang-up as individuals, but we can also make dysfunctions in a church comfortable. We’ve been looking at the key indicators of a healthy church over our last few newsletters. At the foundation of health is the...

A healthy church is more than just a building filled with people on Sunday mornings. We could all agree that churches can fill with people and still be unhealthy. So, what is a healthy church? Last month, we saw a couple of truths about a healthy church. First, it is a gathering of believers who stand in right relationship with God, surrendered to Christ’s lordship. Secondly, a healthy church is made up of Christ followers who are moving toward Jesus. Jesus gives us another clue about a...