made by morrow

all things considered

[brandonjmorrow]

Why You Should Stop Doing This

Why You Should Stop Doing This // Quit being a weiner in ministry...

Here’s my response to Ben Hardman’s article. Let me clarify: I don’t know Ben. This is not a slam on his character. This is an appropriate discourse about competing methodologies. And yes, I know Ben’s article is about pushing for coaching, but the article title sucks.

 I read articles like this frequently and I’m always conflicted about them. It almost seems like there’s too many articles about…

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[brandonjmorrow]

What the Church should glean from Pokémon Go...

What the Church should glean from Pokémon Go…

This afternoon I had a standing appointment with my local Car Service center to get some new tires but before I could even walk all the way through our church lobby I watched 3 or 4 cars pull into the church driveway and hang out near our sign for about 30 seconds a piece. I even saw people pull up to our building only to find out they were too far away from our sign, which served as an access…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Idols

I grew up on the fringes of the prosperity gospel movement. It was the lie that God wanted us to be rich, healthy, and any causes of poverty or illness were a result of our own lack of faith, or there was an unrepentant sin somewhere, running rampant. I remember the destruction of that culture very well. It distorted once healthy parts of my family, my community, and was the breeding catalyst for…

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Pottery and George Fox

Pottery and George Fox | #storylectionary | post by Brandon Morrow

I grew up wanting to be an artist. Like… Literally my whole life. My initial plan when going into undergrad was not to pursue Business or anything else that is stereotypical among incoming freshman, but to passionately pursue a life of creativity and artistry. It didn’t go exactly as planned as I’m not an artist, per se, but instead I lead a local church (which means artistic work at times).

I’m…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Preacher Helps - Chuck Sackett

Preacher Helps – Chuck Sackett

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Chuck Sackett, Pastor of Preaching Ministries with Madison Park Christian Church in Quincy, IL and wow! My mind was blown by the articulation of Chuck’s vast knowledge and wisdom from so many years of preaching and serving the Lord. I wanted to take some of the best things (they were all golden nuggets) and put them out there on the web for others…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Who You Are & Whose You Are

Who You Are & Whose You Are

Who am I?

What is my purpose?

We wrestle with these questions, and it’s not an all the time kind of wrestling, but there are seasons when we’re looking for new hope, affirmation, and just overall direction for why we’re even here and what we’re supposed to be doing in life. Let’s sum up that whole conversation with one statement: life can be is overwhelming.

I’m currently doing Doctoral research…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Reframing Grace | Eph. 2:8-9

Reframing Grace | Eph. 2:8-9

Currently, I’m on rotation to speak/preach/teach to a local retirement community. I think this is what I’ll say:

———

Ever since becoming a Christian, I’ve been captivated by this idea of “grace,” and we all have this understanding of what grace is, at least a text book definition. We know it to be, “divine unmerited favor,” or maybe, “a free gift from God,” but that’s about as far as our minds…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Best Reads This Week: January 10-16,'16

Best Reads This Week: January 10-16,’16

I thought I’d start to post the best articles or books that I read on a given week to help share them as church resources. I’ve also got a packed end of the week and so I’m not anticipating reading a load of articles:

Leadership:

7 Signs You May Have Peaked as a Leader

Carey Nieuwhof gives us signposts to watch out for so that we can continue on in growth.

Church History:

History of the World…

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2016 Resolutions

There’s a certain stigma that surrounds setting goals and resolutions, particularly around the New Year. Nonetheless, great business for gyms, eh? At least for a short time.

Every year I do resolutions and I think I’ve kept them fairly well. Though, admittedly, I forget about them somewhere around January 8th or 9th. If you want to look at what I set for myself in previous years, check out my…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Alcohol: Escaping Legalism and Finding Biblical Clarity

Alcohol: Escaping Legalism and Finding Biblical Clarity

I’ve seen an article of considerable length floating around cyberspace that is titled, 50 Reasons Why I Don’t Drink, which gives a Pastor’s reflection on why she doesn’t drink following a season of alcoholism in her life. As of typing this, that article has over 500,000 shares.

It seems that modern Christianity keeps returning to this subject for some reason, it’s an argument/discussion that I…

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[brandonjmorrow]

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Beginning Ministry

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Beginning Ministry

Ministry is tough.

That’s not to say that all jobs aren’t tough, but ministry comes with a lot of demands: physical (church people can eat), emotional (the variance of people is astonishing), spiritual (making sure others get fed often leads to you starving), financial (many times the pay doesn’t equal the output), and about every other demand that might have to do with your personal life. That’s…

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What I Learned from Online Seminary Education

What I Learned from Online Seminary Education

Getting a Seminary degree online is becoming more and more of an attractive option to going the traditional route of seminary education, but it’s hard. At least it was for me.

I chose an online seminary education because of several reasons:

It was crazy more affordable

I didn’t have to move

It fit within my schedule

My church offered to help pay for a portion of it while I continued to minister…

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On Fasting [Audio Link]

On Fasting [Audio Link]

Hey! Just preached on Fasting! Why don’t you go give it a listen?

On Fasting [12.27.15] – Brandon Morrow Sermon Audio

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[brandonjmorrow]

The Echo of Stigmata [SM]

The Echo of Stigmata [SM]

The Echo of Stigmata Date: Sunday, September 13, 2015 Series: Popular Christianity Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:14-17, 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 Pray. This is a reading from 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4:14-17: I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Church Contagious [SM]

A sermon manuscript for the church by Brandon Morrow.

The Church Contagious Date: 11.15.15 Text: Ephesians 5

Series: The Awakening

Text:

Ephesians 5

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no…

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[brandonjmorrow]

FAQ: Hell

It might be kind of hubris to do a FAQ on popular topics in Christianity, but we’ll give it a shot.

This one is over hell. If you disagree on something, comment and tell me why, and I’ll try to answer in a consistent manner.

Here’s a graph I made to show the Biblical idea of hell:

Is hell eternal or not?

Very much eternal. It’s an eternal destination with no way out (See Luke 16 and John 3.13…

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[brandonjmorrow]

Pastoral Worship: Please Stop (1/3)

Pastoral Worship: Please Stop (1/3)

Hey.

Just going to write a couple of posts on why worshipping your pastor is a bad thing, and you’re probably doing it more than you realize.

How We View the Pastor

Eugene Peterson (with Marva Dawn) wrote a pretty good book on pastoral ministry called The Unnecessary Pastor (click the title to purchase), reclaiming what our call to pastoral and vocational ministry.

Once or twice I’ve been in the…

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