Articles
Pieces
noun (plural): broken or irregular parts of something; fragments "God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him." Psalm 18:20 “Careful… don’t break it!” How many times have you heard that in your life? Of course you didn’t want to break Grandma’s...
Listen . . . For Heaven’s Sake! The Confessions of a Recovering Evangelist
Several years ago, I was invited to speak at one of the largest churches in Colorado. After flying into Denver, I was shuttled over to my rental car company to pick up my ride for the weekend. While I was filling out the paper work for my car, I couldn’t help but...
Four Phrases Every Pastor Should Say Every Sunday
There’s something powerful about repetition. Doing the same thing day in and day out. Over time habits start to form, and those habits play a big role in our lives. If you have good habits, your life tends to go well. If you have bad habits, your life tends to fall...
Five Ministries Every Church Needs to Be Good At
Most small town churches are trying to do too much. In reality, you really only need to be good at about five things, and I would argue you could get by with being really good at three of them. For many years the church I serve has offered a great kid’s ministry, a...
4 Simple And Effective Growth-Engaging Techniques
I’ve yet to meet a pastor who wants 2019 to be labeled by their church as the “Year Of Blah.” Yet you know the struggle it can be for our congregants to attend regularly, or–especially–to engage. I’ve noticed something significant among churches I’ve worked with this...
If We Had More Prayer…
“If we had more prayer and less selfishness, our world would be much better.” A person I have known and respected for many years wrote that simple sentence to me in an email the other day, and for some reason it really resonated with me: More prayer and less...
Living Intentionally
What would you do if you knew you only had six months to live? That question confronted me during a recent close brush with death. A blood clot had formed in my lungs. I filled a tiny red notebook provided by the hospital with thoughts on how to leave nothing...
Proximity and Presence
At Canaan we are trying to live into our tagline “the church where love makes the difference,” which we have found to be a very dangerous statement. Christians often tell people we love them before we have ever lived with, listened to, or learned from...
Heaven: It’s Not for Everyone
Most people believe in an afterlife. And in most cases, this belief involves a good place and a bad place. If you’re a good person, and you embrace the right beliefs, you go to the good place. If you’re not, and you don’t, you go to the bad place. Seems simple enough....
Four ways to help your teens disconnect from social media and spend time with God
It’s no surprise that students need to spend daily time alone with God. And its also no surprise that a student’s relationship with God can improve if they would just spend some time cultivating that relationship through reading the bible and praying....
Improving Family Relationships: A New Year’s Resolution
You’ve heard it said many times before. You’ve likely even said it to yourself. “Don’t sacrifice your family for your ministry.” You know it’s true, but you continue to struggle with the implementation. It’s not just about the preaching and teaching, but...
Real Worship
Jesus Christ is the essence of true beauty. When God created the earth, He created it by, in, and through His Son, the Lord Jesus (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2–3). For this reason, the universe is brimming with beauty and elegance. For this reason, everything...
To Give or Volunteer, that is–NOT–the question.
The American church has, in practice, converted some principles away from their original meaning. Particularly, it seems the ideal of volunteering has replaced true giving. To make my point, let’s convert a few well-known verses to how they’re being played out in...
Created to Create
The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Genesis 2:7 NLT Have you ever wondered, Where did I come from? Before your eyes glaze over and you start...
Six Things You Should Know About First-Time Guests
The church I serve recently hosted a “Friends and Family Day” in which we saw our largest attendance of the year. It was awesome seeing all the new faces and how our volunteers connected with new guests. I’m hoping that we see many of them come back and get connected...
Good, Better, Best
Exercising discernment when every choice is a good choice It happens more often than I like to admit. My husband and I will be comparing our schedules, synching our calendars for the upcoming week, when we realize that we’ve got (at least) two important events...
Hypocrisy
"Do not judge, lest you should be judged." Matthew 7:1 BLB “There are too many hypocrites in the church, so I don’t go.” That was the first sentence out of the young man’s mouth after he found out that I was a pastor. I was walking my dog and stopped to talk to a...
The Hardest Part of Being a Missionary
You know it is true…most people avoid ever praying the prayer asking God if they are to be headed to the mission field! Why? God might actually say “YES, GO!”. Do you think that is the hardest part of being a missionary? There is no rock solid evidence or great...
Taking Back Advent Part 4
As I laid in bed this morning, our Advent journey drawing towards the culmination of all of our hopes and preparations, I thought about the capacity I have for fearfulness. I expend way too much time and energy worrying about what might happen. The beautiful thing...
Does the Passing of Billy Graham Signal the Death of Christianity?
When I came to Wheaton College, I began to serve as the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair. That role, and the role at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton, came with a key responsibility. Eventually, I was given a card that I was told I needed to carry on my person at...
