Mike McLoughlin's Blog

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As Go The Leaders, So Goes the Church - Leading New Life Through The Pain and Out The Other Side.

Mike McLoughlin — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:08:22 -0800

I have been blogging on a leadership transition occurring at my local church. (See my previous post here). I have suggested that the way forward for us is to go through the pain generated from recent personnel changes, specifically the end of the working relationship with the founders of the church, so as to come out the other side of the experience empowered to love one another more deeply.

I am using Scazzero's book The Emotionally Healthy Church as my template for the way through the current situation. Scazzero planted a church in the Queens area of New York City. Ironically, the name of the church was New Life Fellowship. That's the original name of our church after we dropped the word 'Baptist' and before we added the word 'Vineyard'. Now we are simply New Life Church.

In chapter one, Scazzero links the emotional health of leaders with that of their congregations. Leaders who have the capacity to publicly admit pain, disappointment and failure are better able to model appropriate and mature emotional behaviors for their congregation. Leaders that deny there is pain, pretend it is of little consequence or are not willing to publicly admit their emotional weaknesses model the opposite.

People trust leaders who are sincere, authentic and transparent with their emotions. Being transparent about the pain gives followers a sense that their leaders understand human frailty. People feel safe with those who understand and identify with that frailty. Trust develops under these conditions.

Those who cannot admit their pain publicly, will find their exhortations falling on deaf ears. People are not stupid. They can see when leadership is struggling with issues. Why not admit it? Those who have admitted it and are transparent with it gain favor in people's hearts.

This is what Scazzero does in recounting his story of emotional challenge and transitions at his church. It was when he connected with his emotions on a personal level and found appropriate expression for them in his church context that he was able to model for others how to respond appropriately to pain and disappointment.

"What God did in our lives spilled out into the church immediately, beginning with our staff team, then our elder board, and eventually the rest of our leadership. For the first time, I understood what it meant to minister out of who you are, not what you do. My discovery was contagious. We went from being "human doings" to "human beings " The result has been a rippling effect, very slowly, through the entire church. Beginning with the staff and elders, interns, ministry and small-group leaders, the congregation at large—directly and indirectly—we have intentionally integrated the principles outlined in this book throughout the church." (p. 34)

For us at New Life we need leaders who own emotions by "ministering out of who they are" in a way that allows the people they lead to follow suit.

For example, people can invest the present circumstances with emotional pain from previous events in their personal lives. Some have described the surprise announcement of the loss of the founders of our church as a divorce. The congregation are like the children who are the last ones to find out that there is trouble in the marriage. Some people who have really experienced divorce may invest in the present circumstances the feelings of hurt and abandonment they felt with their parents surprise divorce even though the two situations are very different.

Emotionally mature church leaders will see the potential for this to happen in their congregation. So they identify the pain people are feeling -- the pain at being surprised with difficult news. Then they own that pain publicly as their own pain and empathize with those who are feeling that pain, but distinguishing it from the pain that people may have personally experienced in other situations in their lives.

Then they model how they, as leaders, are dealing with the pain by seeking or offering forgiveness. They show their people a way out of the pain, a way that takes the pain "out of circulation" by grounding the 'electrical current' of the pain in forgiveness so that it is dissipated in a healthy manner, thus allowing healing to happen.

In doing so they diffuse the emotions generated by that pain that are often made worse by previous painful experiences. This allows people a measure of closure on the pain, giving them release to renew relationships and start the process of rebuilding trust.

So the way through pain for our church is not to skirt the issue or to pretend it will go away. Growing emotionally means that we own the pain and talk about it with an effort to bring healing by reconciling with one another in love. Love does not mean there will be no more pain, it simply means that when pain does come, as it inevitably will come, we are not overwhelmed by it. Instead we embrace it as a necessary part of our emotions and we let it shape us so that we can care for one another more deeply.

Thus church leadership needs to model the way through the pain. As Scazzero succinctly states, "As go the leaders, so goes the church." Our leadership has an amazing opportunity right now that does not come around often. It is an opportunity born from adversity. We have reaped the consequences of emotional immaturity too much in our past, now is our opportunity to step into the pain and through the pain and out the other side. This is what I mean by the pain shaping us as a congregation and maturing us in our spirituality as well our emotions.

The Kelowna city motto is "fruitful in unity." It is a motto we as a church have previously endorsed. God wants for us to be an emotionally healthy and a spiritually fruitful church. For us to be fruitful as God desires we need some pruning. Pruning is painful ...

How to Have an Emotionally Healthy Church

Mike McLoughlin — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 11:34:49 -0800

As per my last post I have had some conversations with people about the emotional pain resulting from recent personnel changes at New Life Church Kelowna. The responses ranged from "We have been talking about the pain too long and it is time to move on." to "The pain is very real, any attempt to deny it revictimizes those who have it." to "It really hurts but I am willing to forgive." That last response is the emotionally healthy response.

In his book, The Emotionally Healthy Church, Peter Scazzero makes the case that a spiritually mature church is an emotionally mature church. Emotionally mature churches are able to go through the pain and come out the other side of it, allowing the pain to refine, purify and shape the church community. Immature churches ignore there is pain or they get so fixated on the pain that they cannot move on.

Our challenge at New Life is how do we process our pain and the pain we have caused others in an emotionally mature manner? I think Scazzero's book can help us do that. He is a pastor from New York city who burned out in his ministry and learned some very hard lessons about what it means for a church community to bear with one another in love. He says,

"The sad reality is that too many people in our churches are fixated at a stage of spiritual immaturity that current models of discipleship have not addressed. Many are supposedly "spiritually mature" but remain infants, children, or teenagers emotionally. They demonstrate little ability to process anger, sadness, or hurt. They whine, complain, distance themselves, blame, and use sarcasm—like little children when they don't get their way. Highly defensive to criticism or differences of opinion, they expect to be taken care of and often treat people as objects to meet their needs. Why?

The answer is what this book is about. The roots of the problem lie in a faulty spirituality, stemming from a faulty biblical theology (chs. 3 and 4). Many Christians have received helpful training in certain essential areas of discipleship, such as prayer, Bible study, worship, discovery of their spiritual gifts, or learning how to explain the Gospel to someone else. Yet Jesus' followers also need training and skills in how to look beneath the surface of the iceberg in their lives (ch. 5), to break the power of how their past influences the present (ch. 6), to live in brokenness and vulnerability (ch. 7), to know their limits (ch. 8), to embrace their loss and grief (ch. 9), and to make incarnation their model for loving well (ch. 10). Making incarnation the top priority in order to love others well is both the climax and point of the entire book. The church is to he known, above all else, as a community that radically and powerfully loves others. Sadly, this is not generally our reputation. "(p. 18)

I think the pain we experience both individually and corporately is, as C S Lewis put it in his book, The Problem of Pain, God's megaphone trying to get our attention so we can address some serious personal and community issues. Moving on without addressing these issues, I fear will condemn us to repeat our folly, and re-experience the pain again in our new situation.

So I actually think we need to move toward the pain as a church rather than away from it. I think the pain is where God wants us to go. It is the cross he intends for us to bear as a church right now. Not that we stay at the place of pain, but that we move through the pain and out the other side, allowing the pain to shape us.

I think God wants us to become 'wounded' healers, who are familiar with sorrows so that we are better able to bear the sorrows of others. This is what it means to live incarnationally. (Henri Nouwen has written a classic book on this subject called The Wounded Healer).

If we can own this as our story in which our pain has redemptive value, it can bring lasting healing to that pain and empower us for the way forward as individuals and as a church community.

That is the message of Scazzero's book and it the way we can become an emotionally healthy church. My hope is for us to be a community that does not continue to re-offend and re-experience relational pain but that we learn to love one another deeply, so deeply that no amount of pain or disappointment or anger will ever again come between us. This is my hope for the way forward for New Life Church Kelowna.

Let Us Talk About the Pain at New Life

Mike McLoughlin — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:46:49 -0800

A week ago Sunday night this is what happened to my car. It was parked on the street outside the auto repair shop waiting for a new starter. Somebody decided to have a little fun by dropping a rock into the windshield.

The previous Friday, I received an e mail courageously challenging my thinking on Why I stay at New Life Church. She asked, "Are there only two categories of church going people: consumer Christians and covenantal Christians? Are there not more categories? Is it so black and white? What about the group who have been patient long suffering members in which the pain of spiritual and relational disappointment disables their participation?

I stand corrected on my two category approach. Participation in church community can range along a continuum from covenantal commitment where members stick by their church no matter what to 'church hopping' where participation is conditional on church products offered.

I stick by my assertion, though, that Christian life is about bearing with one another in love because I believe God's unconditional commitment to us means we must follow suit. This is what Matthew 18:21-22 teaches. Forgiveness is not optional, however much commitment to one particular church community may be!

However, to forgive and to bear with one another does not deny the REAL pain of relational and spiritual disappointment. This is the lesson from the rock in my car windshield. The pain sits like a big rock crushing the spirit and life out of those who are wounded. If we are going to have a REAL conversation for the sake of REAL community at New Life, we need to talk about the pain. To ignore it is to deny it.

Exactly one year prior to the morning of August 13th, the day New Life announced the departure of Wesley and Stacey Campbell, I had a very vivid dream in which I needed to see a doctor at the local hospital. As I approached the front door, I noticed the receptionist sitting on the steps taking a lunch break. I asked her about an appointment. She said, "I don’t know, why don’t you go up to the office, get the appointment book and bring it down to me. I will see if there is a space this afternoon for you." I said, "Sure!" So I took the elevator up to the office. I went in, reached over the front counter and got her appointment book. I went out to catch the elevator, but it had already started down. Rather than wait for it to return, I decided to take the stairs, because I wanted to get the appointment sorted out quickly.

I went through a doorway I thought led to the stairwell, but it wasn't the stairwell. It was another section of the hospital that is reserved for maintenance of the hospital systems. I could see all this big equipment parked in empty hospital rooms. I tried finding the stairs but I got lost. I could not find my way out and there was no one around to show me the way out. I checked my watch and I realized that the secretary's lunch break was over and that she was probably back at the front desk looking for her appointment book. I was lost. I felt ashamed at my mistake. I did not know how to get out. There was no one to help me. I felt an overwhelming sense of panic. I was trapped in the place of pain.

As I reflected upon this dream, I realized the hospital represented both a place of pain and a place for healing. Jesus is the doctor. I am on my way to be healed by Jesus. However, I have to get by the gatekeeper who is the secretary. The secretary represents all those people in my life who I feel I need to please. I took what I thought was a shortcut so I could please them but it ended up getting me lost in the place of pain.

After sharing this dream with my wife and some friends, I realized that I needed some help. So I started a counseling program. However, as the past year progressed, things went from bad to worse and I ended up in full blown depression. Depression is what happens when one internalizes one’s anger. When my counselor asked me if I was angry, I told her I did not think so. But the problem was that I did not know how to get in touch with my feelings. In fact, I was operating in denial that I had any feelings, that I was feeling any pain at all.

Just before the big announcement at New Life last August, I enrolled in a eight day course in Biblical Counseling at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Okanagan base entitled "Pain of the Heart". It was taught by a Mennonite couple from Ontario, Clair & Clara Schnupp. They minister among first nations people in Northern Canada and Greenland. (Read more about their ministry here.)

As the Schnupp’s shared their stories of pain of the heart, I realized that I had been living in denial of my pain. Depression resulted from me denying an outlet for the anger at the pain I was feeling but could not find expression for. As the course progressed, I realized I could connect with my pain by attaching feeling words to it such as disappointment, sadness, abandonment, etc. As I attached these feeling words to my pain I had an outlet to express it. I could talk about it with those at the course in a safe loving environment. As I talked about my pain, I felt God's healing penetrate my being and I was released from the weight of my pain. the rock was being removed from the windshield of my car.

In God's mercy, I think it was no coincidence that I had a dream exactly one year prior to the happenings ...

Why do I stay at New Life Church? Making the Hard Decision to Care Covenantally for My Church Family.

Mike McLoughlin — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:45:05 -0700

A friend who used to attend my church recently asked me "Why do you stay there? There’s a lot of sizzle at that church, but where is the beef?" Then he gave me a teaching CD from his new church as if to say -- here is some substance.

The decision to stay or to go is deeper than indulging one's preference for more beef and less sizzle. Sure, my church has weaknesses. Yes, the teaching could be better, but then so could every other church's teaching be better. Certainly, there is a need for change. Improvement opportunities abound at New Life Church Kelowna.

From the perspective of consumer Christianity, church is a dispenser of religious goods and services. Some churches provide better value for your tithing dollars. Others find it difficult to compete. Consumer Christians make church membership conditional on the product offered.

Covenantal Christianity sees the church as a community more than a spiritual consumers club. This is because in the gospel, God cares for us covenantally not conditionally, therefore, we must care for one another covenantally, not conditionally. (Matthew 18:21-22)

Once we have made the commitment to be a member of a church family, we are not at liberty to keep the door ajar or to take a wait and see attitude with respect to our church family. As long as New Life Church Kelowna subscribes to the basic creeds of the Christian faith, I am called as a member to care for them covenantally.

This is the hard made decision: to let go of the pain of disappointed expectations, to be patient with the failings of leadership, to endure the differences in ministry style, to put up with the irritating idiosyncrasies, to bear with one another in love, to forgive the offense that has upset me, and to move from a position of conditionality to a place of trust. Trust in God who will provide the grace to cover me when I risk loving othersunconditionally.

Besides this basic reason, here are more reasons why I stay:

Ø Staying Because of Perspective. The problems at my local church are reflective of wider problems that are occurring throughout the North American church. A huge cultural shift is occurring in our society that affects the local church. Reggie McNeal, author of The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, states "current church culture in North America is on life support." George Barna in his book Revolution calls for a complete transformation in where church happens. (See my reviews here) Brian McLaren, author of Church on the Other Side, states it is time to migrate to a new way to do Christianity. All these authors have one thing in common. They see that the local church in North America is in serious trouble. Unless it transitions, it will die. I stay because I believe New Life can make that transition and I want to help them do that.

Ø Staying Because There is Substance. At New Life, there is substance beneath the sizzle. Our church has a rich history with God. We have made a difference in our community, in the nation and around the world. There is a present vitality in our worship and community. I stay because I know God has used New Life to make a difference in the lives of many people both in Kelowna and abroad. He will do it again.

Ø Staying Because New Life is My Tribe. In 1988 I wrote these words in my journal concerning my arrival at New Life. "I had found my tribe!" Although one may reject one's family, one cannot lose the family resemblance. New Life Church has shaped who I am and I believe will continue to do so. I embrace that no matter how difficult it is to live in a dysfunctional family, Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." New Lifer's are my friends. Friendship demands I stay.

Ø Staying Because I have Hope the Church can be Different. In 2000, our church launched a revolution in the way we minister. We went from a governance structure that concentrated knowledge and power in a small clique at the top of the church hierarchy, to a governance structure that distributed knowledge and power more evenly among ministry leaders. In the New Beginnings approach, everyone could hear from God, not just the 'anointed few'. Everyone had an apostolic role to play since to be a Christian is to be a "sent one". Everyone's contribution was valued as we moved forward together. Part of the reason why we are experiencing turbulence is that we are following the path we set out in 2000. I stay because I believe this is the right path and I have hope that we will reap a good harvest if we stick to it.

Ø Staying Says We Are Saved Together. Despite what our consumer culture tells us, Christians do not exist as autonomous decision-making individuals. We are who we are because of the relationships within which we exist. No person is an island unto themselves. If God is the one who "sets us in families" then who am I to decide that since my present church family may be somewhat dysfunctional then I should go and find a new family? I stay because I am called to be pulled through God's keyhole together with the rest of my New Life family. I am saved together with them not apart from them. This is how God forms us for his purposes. Consider this thought on salvation from Leslie Newbigin,

The Bible does not speak about "humanity" but about "all families of the earth" or "all the nations." It follows that this mutual relatedness, this dependence of one on another, is not merely part of the journey toward the goal of ...

This New Life - God's Future For the World Come Forward in Jesus & By the Spirit

Mike McLoughlin — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:42:19 -0700

Last weekend I had a conversation with a fellow who is an ex evangelical. After high school he got very involved in the Open Bible Church movement. After a few years though he became disillusioned and left the church. Today he doubts that Jesus even existed.

I must admit I was a little taken aback when he denied there ever was such a person as Jesus. His explanation for the existence of Christianity is that it is a self generated religion. In essence, what I heard from him was that Christians simply made it all up.

It seemed to me that much faith is required to deny the Historicity of Jesus and even more faith to think Christianity is self generated.

A number of non Christians historians from the first & second centuries do make passing references to Christians.

Had these pagan observers read the New Testament, though, they would have been amazed at the claims Christians made about themselves. According to the four gospels, Christians saw themselves as the principle agents by which the God who created the whole cosmos, heaven and earth, was at work in the world. In fact, according to one of their leaders, God intended to bring the whole world together under the authority and leadership of their founder, Jesus. (Ephesians 1:10). According to the New Testament, God had a future for the world and it was to come about through Christianity.

From the outside this claim would seem preposterous, even megalomaniacal. Christians would be considered delusional concerning their own power and importance. Upon what basis would reasonable or rational people develop such incredible ideas? Reading the New Testament one cannot help but think that the authors of these books are intelligent people. How then could they make such claims?

Their claims were not fanciful notions, as atheists assert, but were based upon certain experiences that the early Christians presently enjoyed. They believed they were no longer subject to the cosmic authorities that dominated their world, in particular, they were not subject to the Emperor or the worship of that Emperor. This is one of the complaints that turns up in the writings of Pliny the Younger, who tests the faithfulness of Christ followers by having them burn incense to the Emperor. (See The Letters of Pliny the Younger).

Not only were they not subject to ruling imperial authorities, they believed they were not even subject to ruling ontological authorities, in particular, the authority of death. They believed in and had as their current experience, the idea of salvation. Salvation was not something that happened to them a long way into the future, but it was a current reality. In it they found freedom, boldness, faith, hope and love.

These concepts generated very odd behaviors. Instead of weeping at funerals, they celebrated. (1 Thess. 4:13). Instead of succumbing to despair at persecution they submitted to trials with joy. (James 1:2). Rather than resentment in relationships they preferred one another over their own interests. (Phil. 2:1-3).

Further, the experience that generated these grandiose ideas of changing the world was something that came from outside of themselves. As Luke Timothy Johnson puts it in his book, The Writings of The New Testament,

If we try to cut deeper beneath the symbolization, we see that the Christian experience had to do with power: the Christians said they had been touched by an awesome force that in turn empowered them—a particularly paradoxical claim given their circumstances.

The terms for this power are various. It can be called

Ø an authority (exousia; see John 1:12; 1 Cor. 8:9; 9:4; 2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10; 2 Thess. 3:9),

Ø an energy (energeia; see 1 Cor. 12:6, 11; Gal. 3:5; 5:6; Eph. 3:20–21; Col. 1:29; 1 Thess. 2:13; Phlm. 6; Heb. 4:12), or

Ø a power (dynamis; see Rom. 1:16; 15:13, 19; 1 Cor. 1:18; 6:14; 2 Cor. 6:7; 13:4; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 3:20; Col. 1:29; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 2:4; 2 Pet. 1:16).

This power manifested itself outwardly in certain “signs and wonders” (Acts 4:30; 5:12; 14:3; Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:4) such as healings, prophecies, and spiritual utterances, but above all in the proclamation of the “good news” (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:4; 2 Cor. 4:7; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:8; James 1:21).

It also manifested itself inwardly by the spiritual transformation of those who received it (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:16; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:22).

This power, finally, was not of their own doing, but was transmitted to them from another to whom it properly belonged (Rom. 1:4; 16:25; 1 Cor. 1:24; 5:4; 12:3; 2 Cor. 1:4; 6:7; 12:9; 13:4; Eph. 3:16, 20; Phil. 3:10, 20–21; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 5:7; James 4:12; 1 Pet. 1:5; 2 Pet. 1:16; Jude 24). None of the elements listed here is found in the NT as a goal for which one is to strive; rather, each appears as a dimension of one’s present life. The relationships, states, dispositions, and transformations are experienced, not just desired. The case is succinctly stated by Paul: “The Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).

Because of this new empowerment, Christians believed they represented something entirely new ...

Theocracy Hysteria Must Not Stop Us Taking Faith to Work

Mike McLoughlin — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 08:09:56 -0700

Secularists who oppose faith in the public arena such as workplaces often complain that allowing Christians to bring faith to work blurs the lines between church and state. Faith is a private matter, they say. So it ought to be kept for private affairs and not allowed to influence decisions in the public square. To permit it is to travel down the road to a theocracy.

A theocracy according to Webster's dictionary is “Government of a state by the immediate direction or administration of God; hence, the exercise of political authority by priests as representing the Deity.” Wikipedia has an article on the history of the word here.

TheocracyWatch, a project of Cornell University, documents the influence of religion in American politics. Many on the Left believe religion plays far too great a role in American public life. (See Street Prophets: When is a theocrat, not a theocrat? (w/poll!)) A number of these people have been recently published books on the subject.

Ross Douthat, a writer for The American Scene and Associate Editor for the Atlantic Monthly, writes a review of three of these books in the most recent issue of the magazine First Things.

“Most of these books aspire to be anthropologies, guides for the perplexed that lead the innocent reader through what the subtitle of American Theocracy calls “the perils and politics of radical religion.” There isn’t perfect agreement on what to call the religious radicals in question: Everyone employs theocrat, but Kingdom Coming also proposes Christian nationalist, while The Baptizing of America favors the clunky Christocrat. Others have suggested Christianist, the better to link religious conservatives to Osama bin Laden—and of course there’s the ubiquitous theocon, suggesting a deadly mixture of Oliver Cromwell and Paul Wolfowitz.

But the various authors are in agreement about the main point, which is that something has gone terribly wrong with the separation of church and state in this country, and that America is poised to fall into the hands of people only one step from the ayatollahs. Today’s battles aren’t just a matter of ordinary political factionalism, they insist. The hour is much later than that, and nothing less than the republic itself hangs in the balance.”

Douthat unpacks the complaints of the anti-theocrats well and shows their fears to be groundless. His review makes good fodder for those who would defend faith in the workplace from secular exclusionists.

Some others that have written on this topic:

Joe Carter at the evangelical outpost: Theocrats and Theophobes: Kevin Phillips and Carter’s Law of Political Rhetoric Also, the evangelical outpost: On Earth As It Is In Heaven: Americans and the “Theocracy” Canard

John at Brain Cramps for God: Toward a Definition of Theocracy

crimsonline: A moratorium on "theocracy" talk

GetReligion: Putting “theocracy” fears in their place

What's the Rumpus?: Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean the anti-theocrats aren't out to get me

Christian Alliance for Progress Blog: The Hysteria over Theocracy

If Mission is What the Local Church is There For, New Life Church Kelowna Serves as a Model

Mike McLoughlin — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 18:15:07 -0700

This is my fifth and final installment (I, II, III, IV) on George Barna’s book Revolution. While there is much in Barna’s book that generates comment, to help sharpen the focus of my discussion let's ask, what is the local church there for?

Barna’s answer defines his measures for local church performance. Local church is there for facilitating the seven spiritual passions of worship, ...

Christ’s Revolutionary Ideal is Love. Is your Local Church having Problems? Ask How You can be a Part of the Solution Because Love is as Love Does.

Mike McLoughlin — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 09:56:39 -0700

This post continues my series (I, II) on George Barna’s book, Revolution. Barna is predicting, that by the year 2025, only one third of the Christian population will be connected to local congregations, another third will be doing alternatives such as house churches and finally the last third will be worshipping at the altar of the “personal church of the individual.” gleaning their spirituality from media, ...

Revolutions do happen at Local churches. Witness my New Life Church experience. Reconfiguring the Local Church – Reform or Revolt? Part II

Mike McLoughlin — Tue, 30 May 2006 09:30:48 -0700

In my previous post I introduced a review of George Barna’s book, Revolution. In this post, I consider Barna’s definition of the Revolution and what Revolutionaries ought to expect from the local church. Then I will share how my local church, New Life ChurchKelowna had just such a revolutionary impact on my life.

Barna makes his case for the Revolution that is reshaping American Spirituality in a short ...