General

Here’s a radio-minute that aired nationally this week on Q Place’s Walk the Way: This is Walk the Way. Brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. Many Christians today would probably say that living as a believer—especially as one who is trying to make an impact on the world around them—is a battle. In this battle of cosmic proportions, you can take a number of different postures: You can take matters into your own hands and go pick a fight. You can run and hide in your church or your Christian “bubble.” You can give up and live like everybody else....Read more …

Here’s a radio-minute that aired nationally this week on Q Place’s Walk the Way: This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. And I’m Pam Klein. Every November, the folks at Oxford Dictionaries in the UK select a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during that year. In 2013, the word of the year was selfie: by now, most of us know what that is. In 2015, it was emoji: you know—those small digital images or icons used as shorthand to express an idea or emotion. In 2016 the word of...Read more …

I think that many of us go into ministry out of a love for the Lord, a love for people, and a love for biblical theology. But once in ministry, we realize very quickly that we are responsible for leading and managing an organization. The larger the church, the more the focus of our time moves from doing ministry to leading staff, casting vision, dealing with fundraising, and attending to the myriad demands of organizational life. While all of those things are important, they often fail to bring that sense of fulfillment that led us into ministry in the first...Read more …

Sears, Roebuck and Company, the once iconic retail giant, has been almost as synonymous with America as baseball, apple pies, and Chevrolet. Some may argue, based on history, that this has also been the case with Christianity and its expression, the Church. However, in a recent Group Publishing blog post, Rick Chromey, author of a number of church ministry books including Sermons Reimagined, draws a sobering, yet compelling comparison between the demise of Sears and what doesn’t bode so well for the church. Earlier this spring the flailing retailer shockingly announced that it was literally fighting for its life–Humpty Dumpty is very close to falling off the wall. Is the church...Read more …

Can I share something with you that my friend Jodi recently wrote on Facebook? I’m thankful today for another woman (a stranger to me) who moved with the call to imagination and beauty. She poured out her love on this ground. What is now my backyard. And here I am with my little family, years later, enjoying the benefit of that hard and worthy work. What a great reminder to release the temptation for instant gratification and gratitude. I’ll press into the opportunity to leave a beautiful mark on the world and my people just by living into the woman...Read more …

This is Walk the Way. Brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. Say what you want about Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz—he has said some pretty insightful things regarding building a successful business: “For any consumer brand today, it is incumbent upon the company to create relevancy in all aspects of its customer’s lives.” Interesting. Now, forgive me if I stretch the concept. Have we—the Church—created relevancy in all aspects of our customers’ lives? I’m going out on a limb to say, no. Unfortunately, although Jesus said He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life—in other words, He...Read more …

When I read Linda Chontos’ story about a 1,000-piece puzzle she assembled recently, I found myself resonating with her self-proclaimed obsession: GET.IT.DONE. Linda and her husband found that, instead of getting easier as the pieces of the puzzle diminished, the puzzle became harder. No matter what she did—rotate, flip, try again—certain pieces just seemed not to belong. But they were in the box! So surely they had to go somewhere! Have you ever wanted to GET.IT.DONE for God? Linda said, “There have been times in my life when I thought I knew the way things were supposed to work out....Read more …

It’s true. Being productive often means being busy. And for most intentional people, the word “busy” is probably a correct description of their lives. But unfortunately, for too many of us, the typical answer to the typical “How are you?” question has been replaced with “Too busy,” “Buried,” or “Swamped.” Pastor Kevin DeYoung of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, calls it “Crazy Busy” and wrote a “mercifully short book” (with that phrase in its subtitle) about this “really big problem.” And it is. A really big problem for all of us. How can we equip others (or ourselves) to notice,...Read more …

When I first joined Theology Pub, I did it to be edgy. I was launching a new church that I hoped would attract all the skeptical, hipster twenty-somethings. And I hoped Theology Pub might be a doorway into that world. It wasn’t. But, it turned out to be much more interesting than that. Theology Pub is basically a Q Place that meets in a pub, made up of folks with an interest in God-stuff and a membership in a web service called meetup.com. At first, I was just an attender. I showed up for the fireworks. It was thrilling to...Read more …