Word of Hope Blog
Read the latest thoughts from Ralph Moore, a veteran practitioner in disciple making and church multiplication.
Planting Churches Bivocationally: Priscilla & Aquila by Phil Claycomb (2 of 2)
Biases, both positive and negative, are part of everyone’s life. So what’s behind my aversion to bivocational pastoring and self-funding strategies? I’m not certain I can answer that… but as I confront my bias I am finding that a close look at Paul and his friends, Priscilla and Aquila, helps me rethink this strange aversion.…
Planting Churches Bivocationally by Phil Claycomb (1 of 2)
I’ve not given bivocational church planting the respect it deserves. I’ve thought of it as an unsavory and occasionally unavoidable method-of-last-resort. I’ve seen it as a strategy to be employed only when absolutely necessary, or once all other methods have failed. I don’t think I’m alone in my aversion to bivocational… most of us think…
Recruiting Is a Team Sport
Yesterday as I awaited a flight, another passenger’s t-shirt caught my attention. The slogan probably defined the company where he worked. It read, “Recruiting is a team sport.” Those few words described one of the pillars of the last two churches I pastored. Why the last two and not the first? Because I’m a slow…
Paul’s Paradox: The Radical Middle
There is a difference between balance and what a friend calls living in search of the radical middle. Balance suggests stasis – living without extremes and perhaps in complacency. The radical middle is all about living to the max while balancing two opposing tendencies. Think of the relationship between building a strong family life and…
Exiting Peer Pressure from Dead People
One of my friends recently said that adhering to tradition is like giving in to peer pressure from dead people. So, fight or flight? Which option should you choose? “I’m no quitter!” How many times have those three words helped you persevere where others might have given up? Yet, there is a time to back…
When Apparently Powerless
Let’s press into the issue of God’s power versus ours, especially in light of recent events in Asbury. The believers Paul addressed in Romans 16 were mainly slaves or people so poor that you might compare them to sharecroppers in the American South. However, there were people of means among them. Wealthier people…
When Social Limitations Become Useful
We can learn a lot by examining the social limitations of the people Paul addressed in Romans 16. This handful of politically powerless and theologically divided Christ followers would grow into a launch point for forces formulating what we describe as Western culture. Understanding society and points of influence is crucial in spreading…
Missionary Lessons from a Pastoral Letter
Teaching Romans as pure theology has hampered me in several ways. First, it comes across a little cold. And it misses the intended audience, teaching this way confuses Torah observant Christ-followers with first-century Jewish people. Finally, the doctrinal emphasis misses Paul’s obvious pastoral lessons. This is a pastoral letter. One false assumption…
Evangelism: Grey Skies Will Turn…
Yesterday I spent a little time in my garden between storms. It’s winter in San Diego—our kind of winter, gloomy but not too cold. Most of our trees are scraggly and leafless, especially those that grow better in Hawaii than here. We need the rain, but a series of storms can get old.…
A Workable Approach to Evangelism
Do you struggle to motivate your members toward evangelism? Is your “invite them to church” approach broken? You’re not alone. The program-based model is failing and never touched more than 30 percent of people still interested in Christianity. We need to equip and activate every Christ-follower as an everyday missionary. But…