Articles
11 Ways to Ensure a God-Honoring Legacy
It’s no secret: Finishing this life with a God-honoring legacy isn’t automatic and certainly isn’t easy. So, in my twenties and thirties and again in my forties, I asked a number of older Christians to show me how it’s done. Thankfully, they agreed! A few months...
How Can God be Good When the Church is Bad?
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to belief in God in recent years has been a growing disillusionment with Christians and the church. No doubt the church has a historical closet full of skeletons. Even in our own lifetimes, horrendous evils have been exposed, with those...
Bringing Change
Through my 18 years of church and non-profit experience, along with my time as a church consultant I have learned a lot about the right and wrong way to bring change. Today, I want to share what I have learned as necessities to bringing impactful and long-lasting...
Why Is Being “Relational” That Important?
It’s been thirty years now since the first personal computers and cellphones began infiltrating almost all aspects of our everyday life. We’ve been dealing with technology long enough now to begin understanding the risk factors that we didn’t recognize early on. No...
When Leaders Need a Leader: How to Be Led Well
“Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time...
Why many more mass shootings?
Why are there so many more “mass” shootings in the U.S.? Well, of course it’s because there are so many more guns and they are readily accessible, right? ! Really? That is certainly ONE factor. But is it the main factor? The left would have us think that firearms...
What Position Do Women Hold in Islam?
Until fifty years ago, hardly anyone in the West was interested in Muslims or their religion, Islam. It was largely because of the discovery of incredible oil reserves in Arabic countries and increased international terrorism that caused Islam to achieve certain...
Treasures in Darkness
A rock collector named Robert Cutshaw once found a rock he described as “big and pretty.” He tried to sell it, and when that failed, he kept the rock under his bed in the dark. Rob guessed the blue chunk of rock could bring as much as $500, but he would have taken...
The 5 Best Decisions to Make When Life is Hard and Doubt is Rising
When we first moved to the Fixer Upper Farm, it was a bit of an eyesore. Weeds six feet tall. Broken windows. Snakes swimming in the broken-down pool. And so many bushes that needed to be trimmed way back. We have girls. And girls are great and can do anything; I’m a...
Walking in God’s Known Will
I remember having a conversation with a pastor from my home church a few years ago. We were discussing the idea of living with purpose. The phrase “living with purpose,” or “walking out your purpose,” is one that I hear often in women’s ministry. Finding their...
Why Is “Relational” Parenting That Important?
It’s been thirty years now since the first personal computers and cellphones began infiltrating almost all aspects of our everyday life. We’ve been dealing with technology long enough now to begin understanding the risk factors that we didn’t recognize early on....
Why So Serious?
“Why so serious?" That was the line The Joker, played by Keith Ledger, in the iconic Batman series gave explaining why he had the scars on his face. It became a cult-like phrase. Make no mistake about it, the crisis we are facing in our country is so serious it’s at a...
Hinge Moments
By the time they have turned eighteen, most Americans will have moved at least twice. Most thirty-year-olds will have moved six times. By the end of our lives, most of us will have pushed that number up to eleven. This highly mobile way of life is mirrored in our...
The Power of One Peacemaker
I truly want to transform our internet dialogue, but it’s hopeless. We’re doomed. We’ll never make it! The internet is too powerful and social media is too corrupting for any of us to make a difference. Social media forms us into really divisive, dehumanizing,...
Forgiveness is central to the Christian story
At the core of our faith is the knowledge that we are broken people, incapable of restoring our relationship with God, or with each other, through our own efforts alone. And that admission of our own brokenness is foundational to understanding and navigating our...
Pastor swarmed and arrested by police
"If you are watching this video, it means that they have successfully arrested me." We are crowdfunding pastor Artur Pawlowski's legal defence please go to https://t.co/5RfUUBxoVx to donate! pic.twitter.com/1UAwXQLVy9 — Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) May 8, 2021 I’ve...
Pastoring Is About People
After months of sitting with the Enneagram and sharing in its insights, my mind turned to my work as the pastor of a church. What about the church? I remember thinking. Does the Enneagram have anything helpful to say about pastoring a congregation, working with a...
The Call to Radiance
In Matthew 5, Jesus steps on a mount and begins to teach. His prophetic words are drenched in love and wrapped in vision. It was a sermon unlike any other that has now found its home in what we call the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7). In it, Jesus shares his dreams for...
An Application of the Prophetic Challenge with the Present
First, prophecy fulfilled is history and understanding it is a matter of study. Second, prophecy's future is an expectation, and understanding it is a matter of judgment. Finally, prophecy unfolding is a matter of discernment. And that, is the prophetic challenge,...
6 Church Trends for 2021
Now that we are over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, we have a better idea of what church looks like in the “new normal.” While we still long for a return to the way things used to be, we also need to adapt to changing times. Here are a few church trends we’ll...
