Calling all Tentmakers! You may not be good at working with canvas or those pesky little fiberglass poles that make more of a tangle sometimes than a tent. You may avoid camping altogether because of the fear-inducing trauma caused by the mere thought of having to construct a tent. Perhaps you find yourself on the other end of the spectrum and think yourself as the Davinci of canvas. Regardless of your abilities with an actual tent, I am talking to you as a potential tentmaker. Although Paul took the idea of being a tentmaker very literally, we use the term a little more generally around here. To us, a [...]

Assessment: Measuring Progress toward a Goal Merriam Webster defines assessment as “the act of making a judgment about something.” What that “something” is determines the information needed to “make a judgment.” Several years ago Baptist Church Planters and ChurchCare decided that we needed to do some assessment. The administration spent two days answering questions such as ‘what is important to God’ and ‘what is the end product that we expect from all the ministries of this Mission.’ All the questions led to one answer: the Church, the Body of Christ, is important to God; therefore, we expect all the Baptist Church Planters’ ministries to focus on serving the [...]

Journey with me up a mountain, a spiritual mountain. This journey is hard by nature but is life-altering, extremely satisfying, and leads to life. A.W. Tozer spoke of this mountain as the mount of God: “Our Lord said to His disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.’ Let me exhort you to take this seriously. It is not to be understood as mere Bible teaching to be stored away in the mind along with an inert [...]