A good friend asked me recently “If you were pastoring a church today what would you preach on?” My quick response was “How do we love God and neighbor in a post pandemic future?” As I pondered his question a little more deeply however I found myself looking back over the last year and the important questions it has taught …
Churching is changing, the world is changing and we are changing and it seems that everywhere we turn we are being reminded of these changes. The pandemic has changed the way we viewed sacred space and sacred time too. We are hungering for intimate times with God. We all need refreshment. We all need to refuel after a crazy year. …
I wrote this litany of healing several years ago. However, this year I have adapted it to be more directly applicable to the time of COVID and have included contemplative actions that encourage us to reflect on the healing power of God in the many ways it is expressed. I have found that the combination of prayers and actions like …
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. …
Paul Tournier was a Swiss physician and is widely regarded as the most prominent Christian physician of the 20th century. He published over 20 books during his career and was a prominent and captivating public speaker. But what made Tournier unique was not his writing prowess or his charismatic speeches – it was the way he practiced his healing vocation. …
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 …
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 …
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 …