(I shared this message with my church last week and I’d like to share it with everyone else. This is my heart concerning ministry) Message from Pastor Doug Bursch for Evergreen Church February 2020 I have pastored Evergreen Church for 21 years. Currently, I have the genuine pleasure of co-pastoring with Dan Behrens and Jennifer […]
[The following is a special free preview of my new book, The Community of God: A Theology of the Church From a Reluctant Pastor. Please read, enjoy and share. I believe these words will encourage anyone who believes Christian community is important but is tired of being hurt by people.] She screamed, “I don’t have […]
Early on in my pastoral ministry, I went to a regular pastors’ gathering where we prayed for each other. After a couple of meetings, I realized the pastors didn’t really share any serious problems. It kind of annoyed me. One week, I shared that my wife and I needed prayer because we had been fighting […]
For 5 years I produced and hosted a daily Christian radio talk show in Seattle, Washington. During my 1,200 plus shows, I tried hard to treat people the way I would want to be treated or at least to speak about them as if they were real people, not just conversation fodder. To ensure that […]
Eventually there will be more church growth books and articles than people who actually attend churches. Until then, here’s one more. As a pastor, no one has to convince me to desire church growth. On the saintly reason front, I totally want to share the good news of the Gospel with anyone who has ears […]
Dan White Jr. has written a new book called Subterranean: Why the Future of the Church is Rootedness. This post is part of the “Blog Tour” for the book. I’m focusing on Chapter 10: Rooting in Community. When Dan White Jr. asked me to join the blog tour for his new book Subterranean: Why the […]
Things to remember before I try to change the world. God is not a Republican. He’s not a Democrat, a Libertarian or a member of the Green Party. God is neither far right nor far left. He is definitely not a moderate. God’s not even an American. God will not show me His papers. God […]
I believe both men and women are called to preach and teach the word of God. These are the last days, and in the last days God has poured out his Spirit on all flesh. Therefore, the sons and daughters of God will prophesy the good news of the Kingdom of God to all flesh […]
The gift of love is a gift of choice. In Genesis 1 we find the pattern of “Let there be. . .” and “there was. . . .” In this pattern God speaks and His creative will comes into existence. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). From the […]
For the last 5 days I’ve shared a journal from a life changing trip I took with the Bible League to Ethiopia. Today is my final journal entry. Looking back, I realized that I forgot to include my first journal entry. So today I’ll end where the journey actually began. These are quickly written notes […]