Word of Hope Blog
Read the latest thoughts from Ralph Moore, a veteran practitioner in disciple making and church multiplication.
Change and the Power of Why
One of the ongoing struggles in church leadership is learning to separate vision from strategy, especially when leading people toward change. Too often, we focus on the how-how something will be implemented, who will be involved, where it’s going to happen-but we overlook the deeper question: why are we doing this? If we don’t understand…
When Mobilization Went Unnoticed
Did you ever stop to consider that at the heart of everything Jesus did was mobilizing His followers to do ministry? I believe the purpose of the Church-the “big C” Church-is to equip its members to do works of ministry. This follows the Apostle Paul’s teaching that each believer is God’s masterpiece, created for good…
Surfing the Waves of Spiritual Awakening
Once upon a time I enjoyed surfing. Not that I was ever good enough to call myself a surfer but I did catch quite a few waves. It was the small ones that confounded me. Foolishly brave, I actually rode a few “freight trains” while struggling to catch their smaller siblings. Friends would quickly catch…
Upending My Apologetics and Disciplemaking Efforts
I recently had my apologetics turned upside down by a book that I read dealing with, of all things, near-death-experiences. I’ve always written NDE off as a folklore or psychotic episodes – until my brother had one. This was two years before he went to be with Jesus and after him lying in a coma…
Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing
Do you find yourself judging other ministries? I do. The confusion seems to arise from the tension between form and function. Some leaders seem to “worship” their church programs which unjustly offends me. It’s Jesus’ church and scripture warns us against our personal judgement of others. However, that judgement can be useful if we’re wise…
Who is Your Main Ministry Partner?
Jesus sent his disciples into the field in pairs. This underscores the need for ministry partners. Our first church plant was a partnership, with my wife and I being the only partners. It worked but took a toll on our home life. In Bible college, I was taught to avoid personal friendships with church members…
What Am I Supposed to do When No One Wants to Make Disciples?
When someone proposed this scenario, my gut response was “join the club.” I came up in an era of church programming. I attended a program-oriented Bible college then jumped into the Navigator/Campus Crusade stream. We made disciples who made disciples. Mostly, whatever success we knew came because of awarding disciple-making a high priority after our…
Learning to Multiply
As a young church planter, I hadn’t considered ordinary people qualified to start new churches. We understood discipleship but not locally-trained pastors-it seemed that worked only overseas. When we launched our first daughter church, we faced resistance from other pastors who viewed it as rebellion or some hippy thing. A “Branch of Hope” Richard Agozino…
Owning Our Turf
We disciplemakers may have forgotten something… While creating disciples is our primary responsibility, it is centered on a bigger mission than simply enlarging the church. Jesus included at least three “domains” on our turf. In Luke 4:18, Jesus characterized his mission as bringing good news to the needy, proclaiming freedom, healing the sick, and setting…
Racism, Wokeness, and Religion
I don’t know if you remember King Theoden who appears in the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. He states, “I will not risk open war.” Aragorn (who some say represents Jesus in the series) responds “Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.” A little like Theoden, many of…