To say we should dump preaching in favor or drama, video, discussion, music, or anything else is to misunderstand the nature of the church and her work. In bringing us into his church, God calls us out of ourselves. Statistics show that the average American adult spends 10 hours a day connected to media; are churches wise to accommodate that trend? Wouldn’t it be better to call us away from our smartphones and tablets for two hours each week (out of 168) to hear a word from the Lord?

Genuine Christian worship is not an experience that can be simulated (or replaced) by any manmade thing, no matter how ingenious. Yes, we’ve become a visual culture, but Christianity is a verbal faith, so we must not let the visual eat up the verbal.

If you’re thinking of taking the One Year Challenge, this article can help you to understand that God can use those who aren’t fine tuned to achieve perfection. He doesn’t require the most skilled or wise, the most educated, God’s way is not the world’s way. In this article Jeff Robinson discusses the disinterest modern people can have for the same old things, but that we can’t sacrifice God’s way for the world’s.

Read the full article here.

“There’s this idea that to live out of conformity with how I feel is hypocrisy; but that’s a wrong definition of hypocrisy,” Thoennes said. “To live out of conformity to what I believe is hypocrisy. To live in conformity with what I believe, in spite of what I feel, isn’t hypocrisy; it’s integrity.”

If you’re thinking of taking the One Year Challenge, it’s a decision that shouldn’t be lead or controlled by a feeling of fitting with who you are, that will change, but it can be conformed with God’s word and command and power.

You can read the full article here.