Jon Perrin

I consider myself a nice guy.  I genuinely like people.  My ENFP personality type means I am very comfortable in front of a crowd, and that I’m always looking to help people connect with one another.  I prefer conversation to confrontation. When it comes to sharing my faith, I would rather speak of the goodness of God than challenge someone’s relativistic views.  I believe a key to reaching people in a Post-Christian world is found in the Apostle Paul’s words to the Roman believers: “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.” (Romans 2:4) But that does create some issues for me.  What do you do with the absolute statements that are contained in the Bible?  How do you reconcile Jesus’ messianic claims with a culture that believes there is no right and wrong? […]

Months ago I had a conversation with a pastor over lunch. I had recently visited his church and, I must say, I liked it a lot. His church had an amazing band and had a lot of young people serving in prominent positions in the church. It was growing and had a lot of positive momentum. By outward appearances, everything was working… and it was working well. When he told me how many visitors they’d had recently I asked him how he was doing quality control with their visitor experience. He replied, “That takes care of itself. People vote with their feet and their finances. As long as people keep coming I know it’s working.” I was honestly shocked to hear this, although I didn’t let him know that I was. […]

One of the things that churches have become famous for is the old fashioned “bait and switch.” It’s a marketing ploy where a business lures someone into their store by offering an incredible deal on something the person really wants. But when the person arrives that item is “unfortunately” sold out. The store does, however, offer the person something that is “actually a better product,” but it comes with a higher price tag. You took the bait (the incredible deal) to come into their store, but they switched it with the product they actually want you to buy. Churches often do this under the guise of “evangelism.” […]

After having given much time and space for people to comment on the same sex marriage debate, I feel the need to add my voice to the conversation.  It is a political hot button right now, and will continue to be for many years to come.  This decisive topic threatens to tear our American culture apart. […]

Monday… it’s a day of rest for many pastors. Because we don’t get Sundays off like everyone else, we need to choose another day. Actually, taking a day off is one of the Ten Commandments… “Remember to keep the Sabbath holy.” – Exodus 20:8. The biblical term is “Sabbath.”  It was commanded by God so the people would take a day off to rest and enjoy, rather than just working seven days a week.  And notice that God tells us to keep it holy… He places a spiritual value on it. […]

Our family checked out a nearby church when we lived in the San Antonio area.  One of the privileges of this season of our lives (searching for a pastoral position) is being able to visit a lot of churches.  Through our experience as church planters, pastors and in associate pastoral roles over the past 25+ years we know churches inside and out.  But because of what we have learned in secular (unchurched) Europe we view every church through the lens of outsiders, especially Millennials and others that are far from God. In visiting this church on Sunday we saw some things that were really good and things that would cause an unchurched person to never come back.  When all was said and done, they missed a big opportunity. […]