Author Archives: Tree of Life Church

6 Ways to Successfully Build and Pastor a Multi-Ethnic Church

1.  Celebrate food!  People will accept you if you love their food and eat it with enthusiasm.  It’s amazing what a pot luck will turn into with food from several nations.  It’s a lot more fun than just quiche and mini-sausages, I can promise you!  And eating together breaks down all barriers. 2. Do notContinue reading “6 Ways to Successfully Build and Pastor a Multi-Ethnic Church”

5 Quick Ways to Make Sure 2013 is happier than 2012

1.  Give thanks for everything you have.  Make a list of all your blessings.  You can stop when you have filled both sides of 3 pieces of A4 paper.  If you can’t fill that much with all the amazing blessings you have in your life, you need to shift your attitude.  Keep the list atContinue reading “5 Quick Ways to Make Sure 2013 is happier than 2012”

5 Attitudes to Ditch before the New Year

1. Apathy.  There was a survey done of pastors of growing churches recently that showed the one thing they had in common wasn’t their theology, doctrine, mannerisms in the pulpit – but that they worked hard.  They knew how to rest and enjoy the rest patterns of life, but they worked hard.  They were continuallyContinue reading “5 Attitudes to Ditch before the New Year”

10 Things They Never Tell You About Church Planting!

10. Your house will be full of stuff you cannot store in the venue you are hiring for your services. You won’t be able to get a glass of milk without tripping over speakers, cables, leaflets, music stands, offering envelopes and boxes of Sunday School toys. 9. The first people to come to a newContinue reading “10 Things They Never Tell You About Church Planting!”

Jesus is not the reason for the season…

Every year we get people telling us “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”. It rhymes, it sounds spiritual, but it isn’t true! Jesus is not the reason for Christmas. Jesus has existed for all eternity as part of the Godhead. The reason the Word became flesh wasn’t for His benefit, wasn’t for His safety,Continue reading “Jesus is not the reason for the season…”

Abundant Supply

Tonight was awesome!  Simply awesome! Duncan Sherwin kicked off the conference with a powerful message on money. Some of his comments on trusting God and not money, and putting money into context (the word money is in the Bible more than the word faith) and showing us how to relate to money was brilliant. ThenContinue reading “Abundant Supply”

Making Disciples – the Truth…

For some reason many people use “making disciples” as a code phrase for “being the church policeman/ being a bully for Jesus”. Making disciples was never about investigating people’s lives to make sure they come up to our high standards – it wasn’t even about ethics. It was about training people to create masterpieces. InContinue reading “Making Disciples – the Truth…”