Michael Krahn : The Ascent to Truth

Below is the full text of my first column for the print publication Christian Week. Below the article are some letters to the editor that came into Christian Week in response to the column.
Let’s reclaim “worship” as much more than a concert
By Michael Krahn  |  ChristianWeek Columnist
If you walk into almost any evangelical church and [...]

Read part 1 of 2 here.
7. Promote people who don’t self-promote / Don’t promote people who self-promote.
Inevitably as a Pastor, you are approached to support, say a good word about, or promote an event, musician, or itinerant speaker. Do your congregation a favor: weed out the people who push too hard or push their book [...]

One year ago today I got the call. The good people of the Aylmer EMMC church met the night before and decided that I would be their new Pastor of Worship and Missions. It was the exhilarating culmination of an 18-month journey that I had expected to take four or five years.
So today I want [...]

Is bigger always better?
Two questions:
1. Can you list one biblical and one practical reason why we keep trying to make our current churches larger?
2. How can we communicate the importance of  ”one to one” and “one to few” ministry?
The conference/denomination in which I am a Pastor is having a conversation about who we are and why [...]

Kevin DeYoung has me pegged:
“No one enters the ministry to further the status quo. Every evangelical pastor, every enthusiastic young Christian for that matter, wants to see conversions, spiritual growth, and biblical reformation where it is needed.”
The rest of his post called “Religious Cushioning” articulates a lot of the things I have been feeling in [...]

In my experience, having observed, engaged in, and written about it, the following are some important and often misunderstood facts about the movement:
The Emerging Church is not a denomination.
It has no recognized creed or doctrinal statement.
It has no charter or by-laws.
It has no president or board of directors.
“Emerging Church” is a term used to describe [...]

In the early 90’s we had an explosion of what we called “alternative music”. This was music that was either on the fringes of or completely different from the hit music of the time. We would have called this hit music “mainstream music” at the time. “Alternative music” came about and was able to flourish [...]

(All New Orleans 2009 posts can be found here)
The idea of “unspectacular work” has been my metaphorical matrix for the week. We are in New Orleans, but we’re not partying in the city. In fact, we have seen very little of the city other than the neighborhoods that we’re working in. And this is the [...]

(All of my posts from Renov8 can be found here)
After the day’s events ended I spent a lot of time talking to a number of people about yesterday’s session by Stuart Murray & Julie Kilpin.
In this short piece (posted this morning at The Resurgence), Jonathan Dodson articulates with a bit more clarity (and brevity) what [...]

I am NOT a Hillsong basher but Ugh, I hate Hillsong videos… and some of their lyrics. I have no idea what they’re trying to market in videos such as the one below. Ok, actually its pretty obvious: the people in the band and all their fans are gorgeous and hip! They spend time in [...]