GUEST BLOGGER: Carl Richardson on the Mission of the Church

A couple weeks ago, Carl Richardson emailed me a copy of a 7 page paper he was going to release today. I was captivated as I read it, not only because of what was said but because of who was saying it. Carl’s reputation in the Church of God is exceptional as a [...]

7 Lessons We Must Learn From the Aussies

Thanks to J. Lee Grady via Faith News for this excellent article.  Share your thoughts on the 7 lessons!
Jack and Carol Hanes were forced to make lots of cultural adjustments when they arrived in Australia in 1987. The couple moved to the Sydney area from Arizona to start a church, knowing that the Christian [...]

North American Denominational Slide

Ed Stetzer shares commentary the newly released National Council of Churches’ Annual Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.  In it, you’ll see a general slide among most of the Top 25 denominations and especially among mainline liberal denominations.  Still, only a handful of denominations have positive membership growth, which in my opinion is a poor reflection [...]

Prophetic Message to the Church of God

Edit 5/12: Due to a formal request from a denominational leader, the original YouTube video has been removed by Matt Boyd.  The video can now be found here.
The video should be seen in full. To watch all three in order, see the bottom of this post. But, you should not fail to see [...]

Engaging a New Generation of Ministers

We are living in an exciting time where God is raising up a new generation of ministers who have a bold vision and a sincere passion for ministry. There are many emerging ministers who are stepping out in faith to answer the call of God on their life. Dr. Lamar Vest said, “ I am [...]

2 Big Events on the Horizon

#1 Tomorrow, there will be a significant video being released by Matt Boyd.  It’s prophetic.  It’s compelling.  It’s confrontational.  It’s loving.  It’s several years old.  It is intended for this moment.  We’ll soon see how well the Church of God embraces the prophetic office.  The person featured in this video is widely accepted in the [...]

New Blogs Added to the COG Blog

One of our goals is to connect COG pastors in the blogosphere. If we find you, we’d like to add you. Of course, we’d also love a reciprocal link. Here are some of the most recently added bloggers all having recently commented here:

Leonce Crump - Tom Rosson - Troy Hamby - [...]

COG Leadership - “I Give You My Word On That”

The Weight of Words
I believe God places great weight in words. Certainly beyond question He places absolute weight in His words. His words to us have become His Word to us. As a matter of fact we discover that the reliability or weight of His words is the source of our “hope.”

Honoring Your Mother and Father

As a son or daughter/product of the COG, what does it look like to honor your mother and father (Eph 6:2)?
How do you balance a call to fully re-embrace the mission of Jesus with a call to honor those who are over you in the Lord (1 Thes 5:11-24)?
As we pray and work for a [...]

Compelling Video To Be Released on 2/20/08

On Wednesday, February 20th, we will be releasing a compelling video regarding the COG on MissionalCOG.com. The video comes from a leading COG theologian speaking in a prominent venue in 1996. It concerns the health and future of the Church of God. Twelve years after this message was given, we will find ourselves [...]

Missional Does Not Equal Young

On Actscelerate, “Missional” seems interchangeable for young, hip, loud. NOT SO.
Being missional is being like Hudson Taylor of the Inland Chinese Mission. He dressed, ate, and spoke like the Chinese in order to share Jesus in a transformational way. He immersed himself in the Chinese culture for the sake of Christ and the love [...]

How To Keep COG Transition From Being Disruptive

Phil Cooke distills organizational transition lessons for us from Circuit City’s transition route. He relied on an article from the Wall Street Journal. They are noteworthy for where we are as an orgnization. His 5 notes were:

Listen to employees. The best strategies come from the bottom up, not the top down.
Refresh [...]

Potential Leadership Podcast

My interview with these guys aired this morning.  Check it out here.

Fusion Assimilation Seminars

Rochester, NY - Tampa, FL - Baltimore/D.C. - Chesapeake, VA - Leesburg, FL - NYC - Portland, OR - Miami, FL - Dallas, TX - State College, PA - St. Pete, FL
These are the locations for the upcoming Fusion Assimilation Seminars with Nelson Searcy.  Read here why I think you should attend.  At only $39, [...]

The Greatest Church Planting Opportunty in the COG

From time to time, I get calls from church planters asking if I would plant a church in the COG if I were them. The NCPO has a poor track record and most states don’t fund church planting to a significant degree. There are other organizations better setup for new churches like ARC [...]

Brother Barry- featured speaker at Engage 21?

LOL.  Just kidding.  But, you’re going to love these videos.  It’s been around for a while. If you have the background info on it, I’d love to hear it.
Brother Barry - part 1 - Brother Barry - part 2 -Brother Barry - part 3

Ed Stetzer on Missionality and Contextualization in America

Most Trafficked Day on MissionalCOG.com

In the past 24 hours, we had 244 unique readers on MissionalCOG.com. As user and contributor content continues to be high quality, transparent, personal, informative, and on mission, we’ll see those numbers climb. As we continue to pass links along, traffic will move up. A decent number of referrers actually come via [...]

We Are in Active Decline and Have Largely Forgotten the Mission of Jesus

In 2005, it was reported that for the first time in our history, the COG closed more churches than we opened. We decreased in our number of North American churches.
In 2007 according to what I’ve heard from the most recent Executive Council meeting, we have now realized a $600,000 decrease in TOT receipts, a marked [...]