Sunday Night Post

Well, I guess I can do one of these posts now. I honestly don’t know where to start. I feel relieved, elated, excited, frustrated, hopeful, fearful, encouraged, humbled, awestruck, and tired all at once.
Relieved – We all made it through, everyone did fantastic, and we launched our church. So many unsung people played their [...]

Why conVerge Church?

While I don’t think it’s a bad thing to talk about why we are planting a church in Lynchburg, I think what is much more important is why we are starting conVerge Church specifically. As long as people need Jesus, I’m ok with more churches. However, that we’ve decided to start a new church implies [...]

Why Lynchburg?

Recently the leadership of conVerge church have been trying to formulate a good answer to the question, “Why another church in Lynchburg?” I think what people usually mean when they ask this is, “Why another church in Lynchburg as opposed to other places that need one more?” Thanks to John Burke for helping me to [...]

I Prayed It, He Did It, I’m An Idiot

Just say it really fast – I prayed it, He did it, I’m an idiot. Iprayedit*Hedidit*I’manidiot.  If today was a chapter, that would have to be the title.
This morning I was pretty psyched from being at the church building yesterday. I’ve been praying a lot more recently, especially since we focused on it at [...]

Core Values

In a flash of inspiration, we’ve finally developed the core values at conVerge. We decided to go with phrases rather than words. These are the main ideas that influence our specific local church culture:

Everything is spiritual
Without mission, people fail
Without community, mission fails
Love the church
Be transparent
Redemption forms culture
Only the Gospel should offend

 

Throwing Ourselves Into the Thorns

In Lynchburg, we are a generation that has learned to skillfully throw ourselves into the thorns. I’m talking directly to the LU crowd right now, so if you are not my intended audience, just listen in.
Luke 8:7 “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it,”
Luke 8:14 “And [...]

A Post of Clarifications

1) A church planter is most often not a pastor.The lead church planter is usually identified as a pastor. But a church planter is anyone who is willing to commit to beginning a new church that will accomplish Jesus’ mission. Most church planters have other jobs that they use to support themselves. A church needs [...]

No Such Thing As No Agenda – So Have the Best One

So I’m doing some reading tonight in a rather popular book by a rather popular guy who has a rather large amount of influence among younger evangelicals. He’s trying to make the case that we need to love and care for people (which of course we do) with no agenda, because if we have the [...]