I started getting serious about soul care when things in my life started to change. Living in a new city, getting married, and having a child within 3 years is a lot of change in a short period of time! And over the next few years, not only did things in my personal life shift, but the church I pastored …
How seriously will you follow Christ in 2021? 2020 is over and most of us are thinking about what we want to focus our own lives and those of our congregations in the coming year. It’s hard because looking ahead is almost as uncertain as looking back. We don’t know when we will be able to hold “normal” services again. …
We are invited to “delight yourself in the Lord” (Ps. 37:4a), but I have noticed that many Christians haven’t yet experienced God as actually “delightful.” The most enjoyable part of my entire life has been to discover new depths of the delightfulness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and I would love to see others experience just how wonderful He …
As church planters, we may easily get bogged down from the nitty gritty of shaping organizational structures and managing the great work of investing deeply into the individuals in our communities, but there is a key way of pausing in the midst of the work that actually aids in providing wisdom and insight into both our organizational structures and the …
My wife and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary this year. We got married on March 30, 2012 and it was a fantastic celebration with friends, family, and a lot of dancing. 2012 was a great year for me in many ways, but there were also a few situations that occurred that I did not know how to process …
Friends, I am struggling. Those close to me are not shocked by this because when they have checked in on me, I fumble through poorly worded responses. This has been going on for a while, but I think I am finally coming to terms with it. This season of life has turned me upside down. Most days, I live in one …
Human beings are like ecosystems. They are made of many different elements that interact, intersect, and impact one another. There are several different types of ecosystems in the world, but the core idea is that an ecosystem contains diversity – wildlife, weather, soil, water, vegetation, and rock are normal elements. Each of these elements is distinct from the rest but …
In 1950 Bob Pierce found World Vision[1], the largest Christian relief and development agency in the world. Today World Vision serves more than one hundred million people in over one hundred countries every year. Yet for all the good that World Vision has done and continues to do, the story of their founder is complicated. Passionate for Jesus and for …
I have just started on what I suspect will be a long, slow discernment project. It all began when I was reminded of the trips my parents used to take me and my three brothers on in the summer. We had a big Ford Falcon station wagon behind which we pulled a small caravan. It was so small in fact …
Western culture tells us that relationships matter. Romantic relationships, relational intelligence with bosses and co-workers, good friendships, and casual acquaintances – they all matter. But at the same time we are also told that we need to be independent, self-actualized, make it on our own, not to trust others, and the ultimate goal – financial independence! My wife and I …