…Not afraid to look a little nervous …or serious …or a little crazy. …a friend to all …regardless of age …or skin tone …or nation of origin …or language (Bob and Paul are deaf) …or questionable level of sanity. Yeah, my wife Nichole is a good woman. She isn’t a ‘home maker’ and she’ll never… Read More »
Prayer for Vision
In a recent message, I shared some thoughts from Ephesians 1:15-23 about praying for vision. While this was specific to our merged congregation, the message Paul has for us is applicable in all areas of our lives. People confuse vision with a plan. While vision might involve a plan, it is not a plan. Specifically,… Read More »
Sermons and Shock Value
One of the big trends among my contemporaries is sermons and sermon series designed to shock people. They do topical series on things not normally discussed ‘in church’ – subjects like sex (in various forms) seem to come up a lot. On the whole, I avoid doing series on things like this. My reasoning is… Read More »
The Superman Problem
One of the major problems with Christians in general and pastors/missionaries in specific is the unconscious (I hope) necessity for creating alter egos. What do I mean by this? Let’s take a Christian. A good person who loves Jesus and is faithful in their obligations as a Christian. But he/she attends a church where there… Read More »
The Burn, post 2
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. [Isaiah 6:6-7, KJV] Fire… Read More »
The Burn, post 1
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. [Revelation 3:15-16, KJV] How can we not be totally on fire? Day after day millions of Christ followers… Read More »
An Unorthodox definition of success
It seems like lately church leaders have started to define success in interesting ways. Everything possible is used as a definition of success – from numbers to square footage to the latest technology. It is even defined by our style of dress. (Who hasn’t seen a trendy pastor wearing an outfit that says, ‘I could… Read More »
You might be a couple in ministry if…
You might be a couple in ministry if this is the kind of pictures you send to each other’s phone. (Nichole sent this to me right before a mentoring session)
Dangerous Pronouns #2 – You (singular)
Yesterday, I spent some time on the dangers of the pronoun they. Today I want to look at another dangerous pronoun that is tearing at the fabric of our churches – you (singular). You probably know that you can be both plural and singular. Some languages have different forms for these and English used to, but… Read More »
Dangerous Pronouns #1 – THEY
Many Christians make a big deal about the use of the word I too much in church. They complain about how people talk to much about I and me. They say the music is shallow because it refers to the first person too much. Ironically, I used the word they twice in the last paragraph.… Read More »
