Category Archives: Church

Joseph—VBS for Big Boys and Girls

Posted on June 5, 2011 by stevepvc

Tonight we begin that age old summer festival known as VBS. Vacation Bible School means our church will be overrun by children and filled with the sounds of crafts and snacks. The decorations are spilling over into every part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible Study, Church, Genesis, Old Testament | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I Just Wanna be a Sheep (Baaaa)—A Sermon on Receiving Shepherding

Posted on May 22, 2011 by stevepvc

A couple of years ago a movie was released that I suppose a few have seen, although I have not and hopefully presume that not many of you have either. Indeed, it is astonishing that there was a market at … Continue reading →

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Elders Part 1: The Value of Growing, Caring Shepherds

Posted on October 27, 2010 by stevepvc

(Note: My faith tradition, the Churches of Christ, are organized into autonomous churches governed by multiple elders. In this series, I’m going to write some of my observations about how those elderships work, or don’t. If your faith tradition has … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Community, Discipleship, leadership | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Destructive Mentalities of a Disengaged Church

Posted on August 24, 2010 by stevepvc

In this series of posts, I’ve been writing about the concept of church mentalities, and particularly the sorts of mentalities that need to be developed if the church is to be meaningfully engaged with the local community. As painful as … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Community Engagement, justice, leadership | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Mentalities for a Church Engaging the Community

Posted on August 11, 2010 by stevepvc

In part one of this series, I talked about how complicated it can be to develop a particular set of mentalities within the church.  That’s not all that helpful without some concrete examples of what we mean by mentalities. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Community Engagement, Ecclesiology, justice, leadership | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Developing Church Mentalities

Posted on August 10, 2010 by stevepvc

Our church, like many others, is working to broaden its self-understanding, particularly in terms of how we engage the particular community we live in. We want to  move from an internally-focused, isolated church to one that is at work transforming … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Community, Community Engagement, Ecclesiology, leadership | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment