Jan 19, 2024 | Church Matters, Pastor's Life, Personal Development
“If you take my son, we’re done!” Drew screamed as he sobbed into the steering wheel of his car in the hospital parking lot. Drew had just come from the neonatal intensive care unit, where his son, Linden, lay in his mother’s arms. Linden had been born prematurely and...
Jan 16, 2024 | Church Matters, Leadership, Leadership
I was devastated when one of my seminary students, a pastor of fifty-plus years, said, “I feel like neither my life nor my ministry has made any difference.” This thoughtful, kind, and intelligent man believed his efforts had been all for naught. Yet he had served his...
Jan 13, 2024 | Church Matters, Devotion, Editor's Pick, Personal Development
When I stepped down from the platform, a lady approached me. I knew what she was going to say. I had just finished an enthusiastic and biblical rationale for prayerwalking as an intercessory practice for our communities. I greeted her, and then she said it. “Janet, I...
Jan 12, 2024 | Inspiration, Pastor's Life, Perspectives, Spiritual Growth
Why can I remember the hospital transport person who graciously pushed my wife’s wheelchair as we left the hospital when my daughter was born, but for the life of me, I cannot remember his name? While his name might escape me, his gentleness and candor do not. I do...
Jan 9, 2024 | Church Matters, Inspiration, Leadership, Pastor's Life, Personal Development, Perspectives
WORK IS THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY many of us have for fulfilling the calling of Christ and his command to love our neighbors as ourselves. Reflect on that statement. What if every Christ-follower really believed that? Building sewage systems, creating businesses,...
Jan 5, 2024 | Church Matters, Devotion, Leadership
Most Churches Ignore this Important Spiritual Discipline It felt like any other Sunday when pastor Levi Lusko stood in front of his congregation and asked them to turn in their Bibles to the book of James. While the sound of pages being flipped filled the auditorium,...
Jan 2, 2024 | Devotion, Leadership, Pastor's Life
We have been in the ministry, David for more than 30 years, Maxie for more than 60. In every church we have served, the assumption was that if an area was growing then we should do more of it! Add another worship service! Expand the Sunday school! Do another Outreach...
Dec 29, 2023 | Church Matters
Never in history, until now, have we been able to hear from so many people around the world brought back from clinical death. I believe NDEs are God’s gift to our globally connected world—widespread evidence of God’s reality and his great love for people of all...
Dec 26, 2023 | Church Matters
As the founder of Canines for Christ, an international therapy dog organization with over 1,200 Spirit-filled volunteers, I have personally made thousands of visits with my therapy dogs over the years. I have seen the profound impact that therapy dogs have on people’s...
