Article: 9 Surefire Ways to Make Your Church Ineffective

Once a year I participate in something called a Chrism Mass. It is a worship service that blesses and consecrates oil for anointing. We use anointing oil for baptisms but it can be used for other purposes as well. I did not go to this worship service for the oil. I went because it is…

Do you know what makes everyone uncomfortable? Sin. No one wants to talk about that. Let me take that back. We like to talk about the sins of others. We just don’t want to talk about our own. Right? Are you still reading? Good. Those who are easily offended have moved on! Let’s get down…

Something to think about. Click to enlarge.

Last week, I wrote quite a bit about the differences between God’s covenant with Israel and God’s covenant with those who follow Jesus. (You can catch up here: https://benbergren.com/articles-the-covenants-of-god/) Not only are they different covenants but they are different types of covenants. These agreements established by God are vastly different in substance and nature. Some…

If you are from Bethel Lutheran Church in Cupertino and did not see the email I sent out this morning, I informed the congregation that I will be leaving Bethel in mid-October.  If you are reading about this for the first time, I apologize for the shock of these words. I accepted a call to…