Chris MacKinnon's Blog, page 5

Holy Spirit Wine and Human Wineskins

One of the worship groups I listen to released their annual album a couple of months ago. It usually takes me a few listens through the list and each song before I hear all the words and get a taste of the message being conveyed.

Driving in the car one day, my wife and I were talking about worship and this album in particular as she considered bringing a new song to our worship team. As I was scrolling through the songs in her car, I saw the title of one having to do with new spiritual wine.

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You can’t be “pastoral” with everyone: 5 questions to ask before we get pastoral

When you are a pastor,there are two primary elements of your ministry that you and the people in the church agree upon. You study the Bible and you tell people about it. Whether you preach, teach, or write, most people understand these as basic elements to what you do.

Another element of pastoral ministry is counseling. Real counseling isn’t just listening and being a friendly ear to hear about people’s problems, though some who go to a pastor’s office think of it like that. It also involves...

What does Easter remind you to sacrifice?

At this time of year, I always have trouble separating Easter and Good Friday. If Jesus didn’t offer His life as a sacrifice for sin, we wouldn’t have a resurrection to look forward to. Either in Easter, or for those who believe on the day when these mortal bodies are transformed into the immortal.

The sacrifice of Jesus was unique. Though it was symbolized for centuries through the sacrifice of lambs, bulls, and goats, it is only the precious sacrifice of Jesus which makes us truly right wit...

The Oxymoron Church: Imprisoned freedom

As an American, freedom is a term that is both familiar and foundational. There are battles over various freedoms in our Western nations, and we wonder at the lack of basic freedoms around the world.

Freedom is an essential building block of Christianity. Though it neither demands nor forces the freedoms many fight for today, it offers a deeper freedom that cannot be bound by any earthly shackles of inequality or oppression.

Proclaiming freedom for captives and the truth that sets us free, th...

The Oxymoron Church: Motionless faith

According to Paul, the three greatest elements of life are faith, hope, and love. The first post in our series mentioned how the local church should be the hope of the world, but few see hope in it. We already talked bout the Oxymoron Church’s flawd ideas about love.

Faith is a concept most people are familiar with. We define our religious views as our “faith”, but our faith in God, and have faith when times are difficult. It is the foundation of our salvation, for we are saved through faith...

The Oxymoron Church: Demanding servants

So maybe this Oxymoron Church thing is going to hit harder than I thought. Talking about community wasn’t too bad, but love was a rough one. Let’s try to ease up with a look at servanthood.

To be a servant implies we have to answer to someone else. It means there is one who has a higher rank or privilege than we do, and our mission is to fulfill the needs of those above us.

There are a couple of angles we could take here, but we will save at least one for another post. For today the focus is...

The Oxymoron Church: Conditional, failing love

Love. It could be the most powerful verb in any language. When we love and then act out of love, the possibilities are endless.

God’s desire to love and be loved motivated Him to create the human race. Scripture proclaims: God is love. It also tells us how we are ambassadors of Christ. If Jesus is fully God and fully man, and we are His representatives on Earth, we are supposed to be representatives of love.

The love of God, which motivated Him to create the universe and to later send His onl...

The Oxymoron Church: Broken Community

When talking about a topic like the Oxymoron Church, the question comes up, “Where do we start?” Do we jump straight into the big issues and risk scaring people off? Or work our way up from the little things? Let’s start somewhere in the middle.

Church is a word we often use improperly. It is not a place, but a people. It isn’t something we do, it is who we are. The church is about a group, a family, a body made up of many individuals. (If you’re my age, think Voltron.)

A healthy church is a...

The Oxymoron Church: Series Introduction

Oxymoron. It’s one of my favorite words. No, it isn’t a cleaning a solution, nor a personal insult. The term describes the appearance of two words in one thought, but those words are typically understood as opposites.

Cold that burns. A dark light. Deafening silence. These are examples of an oxymoron. Each of these can be true, as well.

Church is another favorite word of mine. It holds so much promise, power, and potential. But it can also fit into the category of an oxymoron. This series of...

Seven Tips for When Your Worship Leader Teaches a New Song

A recent post by a respected church leader described several trends in the church that give him hope. One of these was the settling down of the “worship wars”, the clash within churches over worship styles. As he says, “We have wasted far too much time and resources insisting on our preferences rather than engaging in true worship”.

While I hope this is true on a larger scale, I still see many churches in worship lockdown. Either the battle hasn’t been fought yet, or it is just beginning.

One...