1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
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of the following articles is also available in a printer friendly PDF
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the article.
| January 14, 2010 | "We've Never Been This Way Before" | MP3 |
| October 23, 2009 | "Thy Kingdom Come" | MP3 |
| September 8, 2009 | "Preaching 'Falling in Love with Jesus'" |
MP3 |
| April 21, 2009 | "Christ Is Risen! So What?!" | MP3 |
| March 19, 2009 | "Presumptions and the American Religious Identification Survey" | MP3 |
| January 16, 2009 | "Travelling Companions" | MP3 |
| December 1, 2008 | "When Will There Be Good News?" | (MP3) |
| October 23, 2008 | "Ministerial Greenhouses" | (MP3) |
| August 11, 2008 | "Challenging Hidden Racism?" | |
| June 17, 2008 | “What difference does the church make in discipleship?” needs to be... | (MP3) |
| May 29, 2008: | "Dwight's Guest, Gary Baits, Reflects on Baptist Blitz and Costa Rica Covenant" | |
| May 20, 2008: | "The Great Rivers Region on Mission...AGAIN!" | |
| March 12, 2008: | "Relevance of the Resurrection" | (MP3) |
| February 6, 2008: | "Authentic invitation is..." | (MP3) |
| January 15, 2008: | "Not Busy-ness, but..." | (MP3) |
| January 1, 2008: | "Transitions Give Us Opportunity to Review" | |
2007 |
Top | |
| December 11, 2007: | "But in Jesus Christ, God is inviting us to stop trying to..." | |
| October 30, 2007 | : "The distinctive task of a pastor is..." | |
| August 30, 2007: | "Wrestling with the Fact that Believers Encounter Doubt?" | |
| June 19, 2007: | "All the attention given to functions—to the things we do—causes us to miss...". | |
| May 7, 2007: | "GRR Participates in Baptist Blitz with Habitat for Humanity" | |
| April 17, 2007: | "In Wake of Tragedy is not a time for bumper-sticker theology" | |
| April 3, 2007: | "The Test of Faith Is About..." | |
| February 20, 2007: | "Plowing with Jesus" | |
| January 29, 2007: | Reflections on the Missions Conference | |
| January 9, 2007: | Answers for Church Renewal? | |
2006 |
Top | |
| December 13, 2006: | Can We Respond to Homeless Children? | |
| November 15, 2006: | "Our Mission Context: Beyond Geography" | |
| September 1, 2006: | "Discipleship's Challenge to Meet a Global Need" | |
| August 14, 2006: | "One Way Your One Great Hour of Sharing Offering Is Making a Difference" | |
| May 23, 2006: | "What about the Secular Culture of America?" | |
| March 22, 2006: | "Beautify Your Mind" or "Your Mind Is the Problem" | |
| February 21, 2006: | "What Is our Response to Immigration?" - second in series | |
| January 25, 2006: | "Challenges of the New Context of Mission - first in series. | |
| January 2, 2006: | "Confronting Racism requires..." | |
2005 |
Top | |
| December 5, 2005: | "Something to Celebrate this Christmas?" "...God's love is more persistent than the human version..." | |
| June 9, 2005: | "Challenging Times" "It is an understatement to claim..." | |
| March 7, 2005: | "No Commission: No Church" " From the Gospels, I suggest five categories of things that Jesus commanded." |
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| January 12, 2005: | "No Conversion: No Church, Part III" "Discipleship and Discipline" |
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2004 |
Top | |
November 2004: |
"No Conversion: No Church, Part II" "Why should I want to "join" a local church?" |
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May 2004: |
"Church Renewal" The determining factor in church renewal is... |
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April 2004: |
"No Conversion: No Church, Part I " Contrary to Opinions of the Day - Then and Now?! |
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March 2004: |
On "The
Passion of the Christ" a
film by Mel Gibson What controversy? What results when two conflicting ideas meet. |
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February 2004: |
Doing Mission AND Ministry Make Churches Strong The church that longs to be strong will seek its strength in Jesus Christ through mission and ministry. There are no substitutes. |
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January 2004: |
Faith Community: Life in a Paradox Church as community is the basis for congregationalism...the home of New Testament Freedom |
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| November 2003: | No Community, No Church II The church as community is the basis... |
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| September 2003: | No Community, No Church I It is clear that for Jesus, being "gathered together" is an essential part of following Jesus ... |
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| March 2003: | No Christ, No Church ...we believe that the redemptive work of Christ calls together persons to become the "people of God" or the "household of God" (not isolated believing individuals). |
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| February 2003: | The Economy and Spiritual Health ...the financial state of a church is not so much a reflection of the economy as it is a symptom of spiritual health. |
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| January 2003: | What Is a Church? While convinced that a "true church" could only be known to God, [Reformers] were also confident that there would be signs, or "marks," which give a reasonable indication that a church is present. |
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2002 |
Top | |
| December 2002: | Process of Change Real change is desperately difficult and exceedingly rare for all... |
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| November 2002: | Church Renewal I have never heard anyone say "we don't want renewal," but I have often observed a sense of puzzlement and even despair about what to do... |
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| September 2002: | Multigenerational Congregation "We have no young people." How many times have I heard that lament in talking with Pastors and church leaders? |
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| August 2002: | A Time for Everything! Dates are printed on foods to inform shoppers that there is a "window" during which the product must be used-and, after which... |
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| June 2002: | Ethics and Process American Baptist clergy are held to a standard of behavior outlined... |
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| May 2002: | Finances
in a Baptist Church Pastors cannot wash their hands of financial matters. Their leadership must include the financial affairs of the church. In that spirit, I suggest five specific roles for Pastors. |
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| March 2002: | State of the Great Rivers Region The churches in this Region are committed to faithfully living out God's call to mission and ministry in this time and place... |
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| January 2002: | Things Change Times change. Circumstances change. Needs change. The same is true for... |
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2001 |
Top | |
| December 2001: | Christmas Thoughts God is utterly different-yet remains engaged with creation. This is the grand paradox of the Christian faith, and the logic behind the Incarnation. |
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| November 2001: | Self-Care for Clergy Ministerial leaders must be more deliberate about their own spiritual lives, their own physical condition, and their own mental health... |
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| September 2001: | Leaves of Worship the real issue is how worship addresses and engages those who choose to be in our worship services... There are at least four needs... |
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| August 2001: | All People Groups I want to focus on "all ethnics." We are not authorized to neglect or exclude any people group from our discipling.... |
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| July 2001: | Better than Success Early books on leadership focused on technique. More recent studies have emphasized the... |
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| June 2001: | Planting Churches How will we plant new churches? Some churches may decide that the most effective way to meet a particular ministry need is... |
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| May 2001: | Proclaiming
Our Heritage ... there is some theological content to the meaning of "Christian" and "American Baptist" that deserve wider discussion. |
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| April 2001: | Raising Ministerial Leaders, Part II Can we give a persuasive reason for persons to listen for, and respond to God's call to congregational ministry? |
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| March 2001: | Raising Ministerial Leaders, Part I The Region cannot solve this problem, but we do intend to spotlight the need...To this end we will... |
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| February 2001: | Sharpening Ministry Tools Every "tool" that a congregation uses as the "cutting edge" of its ministry gets dull, and needs to be sharpened. Ministry tools fall into two broad categories... |
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| January 2001: | New Disciples Evangelism and discipleship are inseparable. And churches struggle because... |
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2000 |
Top | |
| December 2000: | The Manger Is it possible that the scandal was too much for aunts and uncles? Had they already been turned away by extended family-or... |
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| September 2000: | Culture The cultural issue is a thorny one for Christians. We cannot escape culture. At the same time, our transcendent connection with God through Christ calls us to... |
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| August 2000: | Compassionate Outreach Healthy disciples and churches share in this extravagant love. They are truly com-passionate ("passionate with" God)... |
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| July 2000: | Loving Community When present, loving community the thing most ....When absent, it is the thing most ... |
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| June 2000: | Vital Worship One of the significant characteristics of both believers and seekers as we transition into the 21st Century is a deep-felt desire to ... |
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| May 2000: | Youth
Ministry and Beyond Each of these needs and components of faith formation need to be part of our thinking as we plan and resource ministry in our churches-regardless of the age group. |
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| April 2000: | GRR Goals and Your Congregation I would hope that these goals would challenge YOUR congregation to think about their four or five goals for the next few years. |
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| March 2000: | New Century, Same Christ One of our spiritual gyros as we cross into the unknown of the 21st Century has to be the words of Jesus Christ... |
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| January 2000: | Discipleship Revisited Making disciples has got to be one of the fundamental criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of... |
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1999 |
Top | |
| December 1999: | Effective Organization The best organization for a church maintains the creative tension between... |
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| October 1999: | Effective Leadership Some have asked that I might more widely share my thoughts which were presented to the Women in Ministry dinner [about the cultural environment our church leaders deal with today]... |
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| September 1999: | 50 Ways to Leave Your Church 56% of American employees suffer from workplace-related depression. The symptoms may include... |
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| August 1999: | Grappling with Vision So much has been said about "vision" in both secular and religious contexts, that the concept has become extremely slippery and an excuse to import all manner of... |
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| July 1999: | Organizational Styles While a "proper" organization will not guarantee church health, an improper organization can almost guarantee disease...A healthy church forms an organization that is... |
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| June 1999: | Dynamic Spirituality ...dynamic spirituality is a trait of healthy churches. There is the dynamic, transforming interaction between individual and God; and there is also... |
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| May 1999: | Craftsmen
and Renewal in the Church ....a healthy church is a spiritual building in the process of construction. |
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| April 1999: | Networking Congregations ...congregations need to be part of something bigger as a constant reminder that... |
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| March 1999: | Leadership and Change Since ministry is always contextual, any change in context requires a commensurate change in ministry... |
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| February 1999: | Leadership and Discipleship ...real purpose of the church is to be a discipling community... |
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| January 1999: | Mission and Us ...the depth and breadth of American Baptist mission work. |
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© American Baptist Churches
of the Great Rivers Region
Permission to copy for noncommercial use is granted
