Category Archives: christian

Covenant as Theological Core

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Don Merritt

In our last discussion of the concept of Biblical covenant, we focused on hesed or covenant-keeping.  This time, let’s go a little further into the subject of covenants and take a look at covenant as the central core of our theology… … Continue reading →

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Ford’s Theatre

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Don Merritt

A visit to Ford’s Theatre in Washington is a step into the past, so familiar, so haunting… It was here in this place that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth; an act of sheer madness. Mr. … Continue reading →

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TWWADI: Church Killer

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Don Merritt

OK, What is TWWADI? It’s “The Way We’ve Always Done It” Another word for this is “Tradition.” I think I’d rather use TWWADI because I’ve learned that as soon as I say tradition, I have a fight on my hands… Let’s … Continue reading →

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Pausing to Take Stock

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Don Merritt

So far, we’ve looked at how we got started in our church, turning it around so that it could grow.  In this little narrative, our point of beginning was a church that had little chance of surviving for very long, … Continue reading →

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Vision Rollout: Phase Two

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Don Merritt

The first phase of our introduction of our church’s Vision Statement was in our last post, and it included a little bit of showmanship to get the people to focus on something that had never before happened in our church: … Continue reading →

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The Vision Rollout

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Don Merritt

We’ve been going through some ides on how to turn a church around so that it can grow both spiritually and numerically and begin to prosper for Christ.  Yesterday, we left off at the point where our leadership adopted a … Continue reading →

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Vision

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Don Merritt

Where there is no vision, the people perish Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) Of all of the things that I have seen, the one that is most destructive for any local church body is a lack of a vision.  Gossip can be … Continue reading →

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Quick Focus: “Growth”

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Don Merritt

I’ve received comments from a couple of people for whom I have a great respect, reminding me that a church can appear to grow numerically without ever growing spiritually, and this is true!  Please, let’s understand that for the purpose … Continue reading →

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OK, How do you Know all this?

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Don Merritt

Before I go much further into church growth, I should show you the respect of answering this simple question:  How do you know this? I could tell you that I have been in church leadership for about 25 years, that … Continue reading →

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So What is “Church Growth” Anyway?

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Don Merritt

I’d say that one of the most misunderstood terms these days is “Church Growth.”  I hadn’t even posted on the subject and I got the question about what I mean by the term:  Is it the number of people or … Continue reading →

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