missional – Daniel Tomberlin

March 25, 2014August 5, 2016

Integrity in Ministerial Education is a Missional Concern

“It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, …And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil ” (1 Timothy 3:1-2, 7).

I have been involved in various aspects of denominational ministerial development for twenty years. During that time I have been honored to be a part of many great advancements, each advancement hard fought because of resistance from denominational leadership and credentialed clergy. The culture of our church from pulpit to pew is anti-intellectual, anti-education. It is this culture that will send our church spiraling downward towards irrelevance as we seek to engage the 21^st century with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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January 24, 2014July 9, 2014

What Football Taught Me about the Mission of the Church

Several years ago I was visited by my friend, Nikolay, who is a pastor in Bulgaria. I wanted him to experience life in the American south, which includes Friday night high school football. This was the first time Nikolay had attended an American football game. As the game progressed I noticed that Nikolay seemed to be somewhat unimpressed, even uninterested. I asked, “What do you think of American football?” He replied, “I guess I could enjoy it if I understood what was happening.”

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January 2, 2012November 11, 2014

Is Your Church Too Small?

“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me“ (John 17:19-21).

As a teen attending a Pentecostal church in the 1970s I consistently heard bold pronouncements about the dead Baptists, the apostate Methodists, and above all the “great whore” – the Catholic Church. The concept of ecumenism was most often presented as a diabolical scheme to form a “one-world” church led by the “false prophet” for the purpose of worshiping the notorious antichrist. As a young pastor in the 1980’s I discovered that these sentiments were firmly entrenched traditions in Pentecostal churches.

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December 30, 2011November 11, 2014

BOLDLY Go! BOLDLY Speak!

And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31).

As the Christian church enters the third millennium of mission to all the world I am reminded of the words of my childhood hero, Captain James T. Kirk, who proclaimed the mission of the starship Enterprise: “… to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Jesus declared, “Go therefore… even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

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