Articles
Leading toward Unity in a Culture of Outrage
Outrage. Perhaps no other word better captures the spirit of our times, the wildfire in society that keeps roaring back with more and more fuel. It can deplete all our energy for quieter work, draw us away from the still small voice of God, and seem impossible to...
How You Can Read and Understand the Bible
THE BIBLE REMAINS the bestselling book of all time. You may well have one hidden away somewhere in your house yourself. But while the Bible continues to sell incredibly well, it is often not read. In many cases, this is not for lack of trying. Begin at the beginning—...
How Immigrants Can Make a Home in Their New Community — and How Pastors Can Help
Immigrants who have recently relocated to a new country may find themselves torn between two worlds as they work to forge connections in their new home while maintaining ties with loved ones left behind. This is on top of other difficulties immigrants may face, such...
Lessons of the Lockdown
The term "lockdown," is now associated with the attempt to slow or stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The virus is real, the risks are real, and the lessons learned from the lockdowns are real. Some of the lessons learned were intended, others were not. There...
Man of the Millennium
In the years leading up to the turn of the century (1996-1999), several publications ran “Man of the Millennium” features, presenting various candidates for the title. TIME Magazine featured extensive reports on various candidates, Einstein, Newton, etc. Theirs was...
All In for America’s Kids – Part 2
The ALL IN for FOSTER ADOPTION Challenge: The Goal and Strategies for Serving Waiting Kids Today there are over 125,000 youth in the foster care system. Many have never known the security of a loving home and often must wait for over three years for permanency. While...
Not Just Another Article on Biblical Manhood
Is there anything that has not been written about biblical manhood? Books, articles, and videos abound with calls for men to demonstrate character, integrity, authenticity, and especially “servant leadership.” In an attempt to not write what has already been written...
Church Budgets – It All Starts with Mission and Purpose
Addressing church budgets starts with understanding the broader context of a church’s mission and purpose. If a budget represents the financial blueprint for carrying out a church’s ministry plan for a particular period of time, then logic would dictate that such a...
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...
