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Things I Didn’t Learn in Seminary [Updated] | Premarital Counseling

Four and a half years ago I wrote this post about premarital counseling. I had visions of grandeur and making post after post of things I wish seminary had taught me. Well, I wrote a total of three posts and my post on premarital counseling was the whole reason I started the “series” (that’s poor word choice, it was really one post with two other ones tacked onto it).

Since that post, I’ve actually gone almost another four whole years in seminary (again) and added another batch of weddings and their counseling to my pastoral experiences. I don’t think that I do the best weddings. I endeavor to make weddings Christ-centered, personal for the couple, light-hearted, and relatively brief.

Thus, I felt like it was time to update the post with what I do, what I still don’t do, and what I’ve learned. Continue reading “Things I Didn’t Learn in Seminary [Updated] | Premarital Counseling”

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The Technology-Free Zone

Last week I shared about my no Netflix resolution for 2018. This resolution wasn’t about movies, or Amazon video, or Watch ESPN, or anything like that; the resolution was specifically about too much of one specific source of media consumption. However, this resolution did not come about in isolation. No, this resolution has a fraternal twin:

No technology in the bedroom.

You might think this resolution came from a desire to be a better husband and devote more time to Courtney, but it didn’t. You might think that this resolution came about through careful examination of my heart and my habits, but it didn’t.

No, this resolution came about from a random conversation with one of my kids. Continue reading “The Technology-Free Zone”

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No Netflix 2018

This Sunday, we’ll be in week 3 of our series Resolved. If you’ve been at The Chapel for any amount of time, you’ll see that we’ll do a run for several months through a book, then we’ll run through a topic. As you will see right now, this series focuses on a topic—resolutions.

So, here’s a resolution of mine: No Netflix.

A lot of resolutions are general—be nice, do more good things, give more, etc. I try (and often fail) to make my resolutions specific and, to one degree or another, annoying for me.  Continue reading “No Netflix 2018”

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New City Catechism: Questions 18, 19, and 20

We are playing a little catch-up on thee questions and answers. I brought the kids in for question 17 and they wanted to stay for a couple others. So we offer you three. It would’ve been four questions, but the fourth turned into a hot mess. This is a pretty accurate representation of how it ACTUALLY goes.

QUESTION 18

Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished?
No. God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them both in this life and the life to come.

New City Catechism Q. 18 from Hans Googer on Vimeo.

QUESTION 19
Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor?
Yes. God reconciles us to himself by a Redeemer.

New City Catechism Q. 19 from Hans Googer on Vimeo.

QUESTION 20
Who is the Redeemer?
The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ.

New City Catechism Q. 20 from Hans Googer on Vimeo.

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Book Review–Multichurch: Exploring the Future of Multisite

Roughly fifteen years into the modern evangelical marvel of multisite, a new book has come along. The first swath of books on multisite focused on some of the foundational elements of multisite. Those writings helped bring about the commonly-held definition of “one church meeting in multiple locations” (The Multi-Site Church Revolution, 18) and offer some loose theology for the multisite movement as well as pragmatic principles for how to “do” multisite. Of course, anyone who operates within the multisite world knows full well that the standard operating procedures always change.

Now, Brad House and Gregg Allison have recently published MultiChurch: Exploring the Future of Multisite as part of the change in the multisite landscape. House and Allison are both elders at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Allison also serves as professor of Christian theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. (It should be noted that House previously served at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, so he got to see some of the growth of multisite—positively and negatively—from the inside.)

MultiChurch is like the more mature older brother of the other works. Where previous works on multisite offered joyful enthusiasm for the potential of the multisite movement, MultiChurch offers a measured approach to multisite ministry—offering both theological and practical examples of how that works out over time (the good and the bad).
Continue reading “Book Review–Multichurch: Exploring the Future of Multisite”

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New City Catechism Q.17

Another week, another song!

As a family, we now have songs for questions 16-30. Question 31 is the Apostle’s Creed, so it is going to take some work.

This one, again, is super easy.

What is idolatry?

Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator.

Ok, on to figuring out the Apostle’s Creed.