1.   Your load is lifted
 
“Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  Matt. 11:30, The Message 
2.   You laugh
 
“For the Kingdom of God is … living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit….”  Rom. 14:17, New Living Translation  
3.   You are energized
 
4.   You meet interesting people you [...]

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This is just the barebones outline of a presentation I made recently to some D.Min. students.
1. Invite Jesus’ presence in a big way to your gatherings. 
2. Invite the city to come to church.

A. lots of people
B. on a large scale
C. all of the time

3.  Prepare your people for newcomers a bit in advance [...]

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Presently there is a nationwide sub-culture, AKA ‘acquired taste,’ one must pick up on in order to be a part of a local church in most cases.
If your church is located in Omaha, yet your sound is the same as is typical in Los Angeles — that tells me a lot about your [...]

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The most fun possible is a life — the life — that is yielded to Jesus.
All of the talk around “Joy” versus “Fun” or “Happiness” is silly. I’ve heard all of the slicing and dicing of words from seemingly clever preachers. It’s really a lot of smoke and mirrors. My [...]

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Click here for a special edition video download, “Keep on Keeping on with Generosity” is from a recent presentation by Steve Sjogren to an audience in Tampa, Florida. It is being sponsored by Serve! ezine, the journal of living the outward-focused life.

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When we feel responsible to produce results we cannot produce — results that are in the God category — something begins to die inside of us. Not one thing but a list of things begin to die within us. Our joy, our spontaneity, to a large degree our love wains. We become [...]

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Have you ever stopped to ask, “How has what we think of as ‘church’ gotten to be so dry?" Let’s face it — even what is termed ‘innovative’ when comparing Church A to Church B, is all still destined to be as dry as a bone pretty shortly…unless God’s Spirit shows up in the [...]

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It is interesting that two of the earliest miracles that happened in Jesus’ ministry were ironically at a funeral and a party. In Luke 7, just after he chose the twelve, he saw the woman with no husband, on her way to bury her only child, a son. That son was raised from [...]

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Some of you who know my story only know the highlights and have glossed over the lowlights. This is partly because I have chosen to not speak completely freely and in great detail about the lowlights.  Suffice it to say, any of us could get together and share our various war stories of betrayal from [...]

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Steve Jobs makes it clear that he understands a deep human truth – all people of all generations at the deepest level of their hearts want to make a difference with their lives. Guess what … your church is meant to make an everlasting “dent” as well. God’s intent is that the effect of your [...]

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