religion

12 signs that your church is overly hipster…

I can admit that Substance is a strange church. When close to 70% of your attendees are under 35 years old, it results in a lot of trendiness. Every once in a while, someone will ask me the question: “At what point is your church overly hipster?” (as if we are intentionally advocating for this).…
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Dog statues and Jerry Springer: What I’ve learned about Godly conflict

I used to live on a street where people loved to call the police for everything. If someone forgot to grab a bag of leaves from their front lawn, it suddenly became a public safety hazard. I like to think of myself as being a great neighbor. Yet, I’ve had my share of municipal violations—usually…
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Dancing, Flags, & Ancient Horns: How I Survived a Crazy Church Service & Learned an Important Lesson about Grace

When I gave my life to Christ, I experienced a deep sense of joy and freedom in knowing that I was loved by God and forgiven for all of the less than perfect things I had done. Truly, repenting for my past mistakes was exhilarating; knowing that I received God’s free gift of grace made…
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