Church Philosophy

In this book, Jake Meador diagnoses our society's decline as the failure of a particular story we've told about ourselves: the story of modern liberalism. He shows us how that story has led to our collective loss of meaning, wonder, and good work, and then recovers each of these by grounding them in a different story - a story rooted in the deep tradition of the Christian faith.

The call of God to be a pastor is exciting and can be fulfilling in your life.You will see God use you in miraculous ways to reach people and to impact your community. To be effective, however, you must learn to be strategic. You need a plan. You need wisdom. You need people and resources. Your vision is big, but your energy is limited. Whether you are a pastor of a church or have the desire to be a pastor one day, you need to take time to gain insight in to how to be a strategic pastor, not just a passionate pastor.

Most of us experience the world through competing perspectives. A job or a religion seems important and fulfilling when looked at in one way; but from a different angle they seem tedious or ridiculous. A friend is obtuse from one point of view, wise from another. Continuing to hold both views at once can be unsettling, highlighting conflicts between our own judgments and values, and undermining our ability to live purposefully and effectively. Yet, as Jennifer Church argues in this book, inner conflict can be a good thing.

The Monkey and the Fish decodes profound shifts and events taking place in the world today due to globalism, multiculturalism and technology, and introduces an original approach to ministry, church, and leadership known as The Third Culture. The book title refers to an Eastern parable that will challenge you to reexamine fundamental assumptions of the evangelical movement, including erroneous interpretations that have made the church increasingly irrelevant in North America and the global village.

Success in life is not measured by the absence of difficulty. Success in life is overcoming the difficulties you face with dignity, and emerging with you integrity intact.

Most of us have probably heard the story of how a German monk named Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of a church. These Ninety-five Theses were essentially ninety-five complaints lodged against the Catholic Church. In those days, the Catholic Church was the big guy on the block when it came to religion.

We are living in a dynamic moment. For most of history, Rip Van Winkle could take his 20-year nap and not miss much. But that is not true today. Can you imagine showing up for work tomorrow after a 20-year absence?

Female habit carries with it a twofold idea - dress and ornament. By “dress” we mean what they call “womanly gracing”; by “ornament”, what it is suitable should be called “womanly disgracing”. The former is accounted (to consist) in gold, and silver, and gems, and garments; the latter in care of the hair, and of the skin, and of those parts of the body which attract the eye.

“Jesus said, ‘Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.’” This was banned by the budding Christian Church 2,000 years ago, and is still deemed a heretical teaching to this day. The Verbal Truth of Christianity brings you to the crux of the central message of all religions - the revealing of a truer nature of reality, the defining of God and the cosmos in believable and constructive terms....

As persecutions in increasing number threaten us, so the more are we called on to give earnest thought to the question of how faith ought to receive them, and the duty of carefully considering it concerns you no less, who no doubt, by not accepting the Comforter, the guide to all truth, have, as was natural, opposed us hitherto in regard to other questions also.