Over the past few weeks I’ve been with a number of people who have told me that they were taught by members of “the clergy” that they had no right to listen to God for themselves. Some said that God no longer speaks to the believer, since we now have the Scriptures. Others were told [...]

During my weekend conversation in Clovis a couple of weeks ago someone shared a thought they had recently read on a blog, though they couldn’t recall where it had come from. I have searched the web to see if I can find anything like it and have not been able to do so. If anyone [...]

What a weekend! I gathered with some folks near my old stomping grounds, not far from where I grew up and where I served on a church staff for five years in the earliest days of my post-university and just-married life. People came from all over this part of California, including people that were in [...]

For many people, the early stages of seeing through the illusion of religious performance, makes them feel as if they got lost. Suddenly they look around and it appears the whole landscape has changed. Places that used to help them now seem to hinder them. The old wells they used to drink from now taste [...]

It’s back to California tomorrow. I’ve had an great time hanging out with a community of young people near Chicago and now in southern Wisconsin with brothers and sisters who are on this journey. It has been a lot of fun. A few weeks ago as I flew out of New England, the movie on [...]

That blank is usually filled in with “husband” or “wife”, but it is sometimes used with “congregation” or “house church.” I understand their concern. They are excited about the fresh relational journey they are on, discovering how to live loved and are finding the institutional approach they are involved in to be counterproductive to the [...]

As you can imagine I get the Hebrews 10:25 question a lot. This email exchange might interest others of you who are wrestling with this same issue. My recent newsletter also talks more The Church Jesus is Building in our world today and how we can participate in it. I wonder if you could give [...]

I appreciated much of the feedback from people who read my last blog. And my heart hurts for those who do not yet know that there are people around them, probably closer than they think, who are on a very similar journey and hungering for the same kind of contact. I find them everywhere, so [...]

I had an awesome time last week with a number of brothers and sisters up on Vancouver Island, one of the truly lovely spots on the planet. We got a chance to process lots of various topics that they are thinking through in their transition from living a performance-based Christianity to an affection-based life in [...]

I just saw this quote in someone’s email today. Love it! It shows how bright some of those “older saints” were. “No one heals himself by wounding another.” Ambrose of Milan Every thing we do in this world has the potential to do immeasurable damage to people or bring immeasurable healing to them. The most [...]

BodyLife has now become “Living Loved.” It’s still the same newsletter but with a more accurate title to go with the content. We will still deal with church issues and concerns from time to time, but the newsletter has always been about so much more. The title of this issue is, The Church Jesus is [...]

I’ve known Stan Firth for a number of years now, as Father has allowed us to fellowship together a few times. I enjoy this elder brother in the faith, the price he’s paid to follow his conscience and the simple passion, hope, and joy he brings to those who cross his path. Formerly a Baptist [...]

Read this in an email yesterday: Absence of conflict is not evidence of love. Wow! Is that ever true. But a perpetuation of conflict without the opportunity to humbly discuss, reconsider, and reconcile would be, I think!

I made it back from Mississippi, limping a bit from a water skiing accident and a pulled hamstring. Oh well! Youth must be served. One of the things I appreciated about my time in Mississippi is how people open up when they find a safe place where they know they are loved, have the freedom [...]

To follow up on my last post appeals to the law, I wanted to include Paul’s appeal to love. If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a [...]

What a sad, but enlightening statement. . This came to me in an email last week. I know not ever congregation is like this, but way too many are: So, that brings us to now: we are both at a point where we are really realizing the emptiness of the church we are in. We [...]

I get this question all the time and have answered it often, but I will do so on my blog again for others who still haven’t found the answer elsewhere on the website. I got this email a few days ago: I have a question for you. Do you still believe in Church leadership and [...]

Looking through Parade Magazine on Sunday I saw this little question and answer: Q I’m curious about what happened between Crystal Cathedral founder Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his son Robert A. Schuller. The younger Schuller no longer appears on the church’s Hour of Power Sunday telecast. Do he and his father still speak?—P.K. Sharpe, [...]

This is a refreshingly honest look at Sunday morning religious gatherings. You can read the whole thing at Patrolmag.com or click on the picture above. I realize this isn’t true for everyone, but does this guy ever nail it. Someone sent me a link to this article today and I thought I’d like to share [...]

Sara and I have arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa and are now trying to get our heads to find the same time zone as our bodies. We’re staying at the home of a dear couple I stayed with last time I was here, and got to touch base with some old friends last night, and [...]

I’m off for an extended weekend to visit my parents in the Sierra Nevada mountains above Fresno. Yes, Sara, my daughter and the grandgirls are going too! It should be fun! Before I go, I thought I’d leave you with this: I get in a lot of discussions with people about the practicality of finding [...]

Here’s an interesting exchange I had recently. I have many like it. It seems when people leave an old system, their first passion is to start a new one. The unspoken thought is that systems will work pretty well if the right people are in charge. The reality is that systems themselves are destructive to [...]

Someone sent me another Tozer quote, that is probably much truer today than it was when he wrote it. This one is from the preface of The Pursuit of God . To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign [...]

My daughter sent me this yesterday. Just read this column by sports writer Rick Reilly. This is the church at her best. And see if there isn’t some way God might show you to give yourself away to someone on a rocky road!

I got this question in an email yesterday and felt it important enough to answer for others of you as well. While I agree with many of the observations you and Mr. Young make with regards to institutional church (and I’m only a first generation Christian) – I am troubled by conclusions I’ve drawn (rightly [...]

If you ever wonder why it is so difficult to find vibrant expressions of body life today, you have to look no further than the comments to my recent post about the presidential election. I would consider that most of the people who frequent my blog share a passion to know the reality of God’s [...]

I get asked that question probably more than any other. How do I find fellowship if I’m not part of a traditional congregation? It’s true that there are a lot of wonderful people who attend traditional congregations, but as many have found it’s also not easy to build relationships there unless you’re involved in all [...]

We don’t often think like this, do we? I got this email from someone recently and I loved what they had discovered: We have been in this area for about 9 years now. I really felt strongly that the Lord had spoken to my heart about coming here back in 1998, and we made the [...]

Still hanging out in Wisconsin, headed for Duluth, Minnesota tomorrow. Having an awesome time with some wonderful folks on this journey. I received an email the other day with some quotes in it from Barbara Brown Taylor who has written an autobiographical book called Leaving Church. She’s come from a very different tradition than I [...]

On a recent trip to Florida on a BridgeBuilders assignment , I spent an evening with some Methodist brothers who had been reading some of my books and wanted to come down for an evening of conversation. I had a fabulous time! It reminds me all over again that there are great people on this [...]

I guess this bit of humor is making the rounds on the ‘net! I loved it: Ingrid, the church gossip, and self-appointed monitor of the church’s’ morals, kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Several members did not approve of her extra curricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made [...]

I am barnstorming Germany at the moment. I took a long, restful train ride through the countryside yesterday from Hamlen to Nuremberg. What a beautiful country this is! Except for that brief respite, however, this has been a grueling trip because I am having less than 24 hours at almost all of the stops I’m [...]

I get this question a lot, because I resist the use of the word ‘accountability’ to describe our relationships as brothers and sisters together: I have been reading some of your books and listening to some of your CDs and they are really making a difference in my journey with God. Last night we had [...]

A few months ago we were able to respond to the crisis in Kenya that resulted from tribal violence following a contested election. The circumstances have quieted and many people have been able to return home. But the brothers and sisters God linked us with in Kitale are still taking care of about 400 families [...]

First, an announcement. For those who want to listen to an interview I did on the The Drew Marshall Show on April 12, you can click here for the audio link. We mostly talked about So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore. And then I wanted to share this letter with you. For [...]

I get this question a lot, so I thought I’d post the exchange here, so i won’t have to rewrite it so many times: First of all, thank you for the encouragement you have been to us in the last year. We left the institutional church a little over a year ago and honestly do [...]