Thoughts of Josh Dryer

How Do I Know if My Church Plant is Healthy?   Do you ever wonder if your church planting ministry is healthy? Sometimes that's the last thing on the mind of a planter when he just finished the Sunday morning worship service that was packed with unplanned events. I remember one Sunday we showed up to set up and the school cafetorium (cafeteria + auditorium) had no power. Of course this happened in the middle of August in Florida! Once we finally got the power turned on, it was too late to cool the space for worship. We worshipped in a 90 degree room. We found solace in the idea that people all over the world worshipped God in much worse circumstances. It was still hot but at least we convinced ourselves that we were "suffering for Jesus" or something like that... As we engage in the journey of church planting, in between the catastrophes that seem to happen on a regular basis, sometimes we have a moment or two to ponder the health of our church plant. Do you ever fin...

This evening I had an opportunity to talk about Jesus with a couple of nice women while shopping with my family in Walmart. As we wondered down an isle looking for cooking oil, the two women approached us and asked us a question. One of them said, "Excuse me, did you know that the Bible talks about a mother god?" My wife responded, "No, we have never read that before." At this point, Darlene moved on with the girls and I talked with the ladies. I asked them, "What kind of Bible are you referring to? What translation?" They used a New International Version and opened up their Bible to Revelation 22:17 and proceeded to make an argument for the existence of a mother god who provides salvation for mankind with Jesus. We spent some time talking about various texts in the Bible. They claimed they read the texts like Revelation 22:17 literally and interpreted them accurately. I disagreed and challenged their conclusions using Ephesians 5 and what I believe to b...

This year's tourney has been filled with excitement and great sadness for many of us. It doesn't seem to matter how unlikely it is that your favorite team will win once we get caught up on the madness of the tournament. That is the beauty of the tournament; anyone can win at any time. Kentucky now understands that truth. It also appears that anyone can win a bracket challenge too! Or at least come close to winning. It's time to give you a quick update about my own little tournament challenge. Currently our resident CBS analyst, Gary leads with 91 points. My friend Jeff is second with 68 points. My daughters trail in third and fourth places with 57 and 21 points respectively. Things remain interesting, however, because one of my daughters has the potential to gain an additional 32 points if Wisconsin wins tonight. If they do, she will finish with 89 points, which will put her in second place and only 2 points behind Gary, the guy who does this for a living. In all fai...

We are two days into the tournament and so many hopes and dreams have been crushed under the heels of two Cinderella teams named Panther and Blazer. I know, they sound like the lead guitarist and drummer of a bad 80's rock band but they aren't. they are the nicknames of the teams who dealt out the first two big upsets of the NCAA Tournament. These two upsets have a huge impact on the brackets of our four competitors: Jeff, Gary, Daughter #1, and Daughter #2. Daughter #2 picked both upsets and Daughter #1 picked one of the upsets. Both Jeff and Gary did not pick either of the upsets. Here is where each person stands right now in the competition: Daughter #1 is in first place with 10 points but only has 162 potential points to earn. Jeff is tied for second place with 9 points and has 168 potential points to earn. Gary is tied for second place with 9 points and has the greatest potential points to earn at 170. Daughter #2 is in last place with 6 points and 156 p...

It's that time of year again. It's time to celebrate the madness of a national collegiate basketball tournament. I personally love the excitement of the games. This is one of the only collegiate sports playoff systems that allows the little guy to make a run for a national championship. Who doesn't like a good Cinderella story? This year teams like Duke, Wisconsin, and Kentucky probably wouldn't like that kind of story but I for one love to sit on the edge of my seat and cheer on the tiny schools with the odds stacked against them as they knock down Goliath universities with thousands more students and much more money with a single shot in the final seconds of a game. Click here for a 15 minute reminder of the greatness of the NCAA Tournament. I have never won a Bracket Challenge and often wonder if anyone consistently picks the right schools to win the tournament games. I wonder if the task of picking the winners of the tournament is a science, an art, or a mixtur...

Church planting can be an expensive ministry but it doesn't have to be one. In this article, I offer three ways to save money in your church plant... 1) Reuse other's VBS materials. Many churches use their Vacation Bible School materials one time and throw them away. As a new church plant, we did not have the money to purchase VBS materials. Our friends at First Baptist Church of Dunkerton, Iowa  were happy to pass on their materials to us free of charge. We received all of their purchased materials as well as a truckload of decor! Once VBS was finished, we left many of the decorations up in the children's department as our decor theme for the year. 2)  Ask churches to help with your audio/visual needs. Some of the most expensive items to purchase for a new church plant are audio/visual equipment. While we would all love the opportunity to enjoy a shopping spree at the local A/V store, churches can be a great source of free or cheap used equipment. In my weekly ne...

So this is what I see happening in our world right now. I see...  - A world that seems to be incessantly on the brink of war.  - Thousands upon thousands of unborn children murdered annually.  - Christians brutally persecuted for their faith.  - Rampant disease.  - Massive flooding.  - Wildfires.  - Drought.  - A world market that appears to be on the verge of collapse. I am sure you have observed many, many other events of this nature. Let me ask you something. As we live in the midst of times such as these, to whom or what will we place our faith? In our daily quiet time today, Darlene and I talked about God's steadfast presence in our lives. We realized that no matter what our circumstances portray to us, God is there steadily, purposefully working everything out . Psalm 146:1-10 confronts me with a very important question: In whom or what will I place my faith? Psalm 146:1–10 (ESV) 1  Praise the Lord! Pr...