Discipleship

Have a Seat at the Kid’s Table

His kingdom is not like any other. His kingdom is upside down and backwards, but it only seems that way because our hearts and minds haven’t been re-oriented to the things of Christ. He invites you to feast on his mercy and grace be satisfied. He invites you to join him at the kids table with all the rich, poor, needy, blind, Jews, Gentiles, slaves, outcast, and free men and women who have understood that only Jesus offers true rest and life. He is enough, and he stands ready to receive you!

Some Holy Experiences for Holy Week

In recent weeks I have been blessed to see God move in some pretty amazing ways within our church body. Stories continue to emerge of lives that have and are being changed by the gospel. As Holy Week continues, I like to think of these stories as holy experiences. Some of my favorite quotes include: …

Read more

Snackable, Stackable Discipleship

I preach 30-40 minutes every Sunday. I spend large swaths of my week preparing sermons that require mental focus for an extended period of time and I do not apologize. Over and over I find that people are able to engage for an extended sermon time so long as the message is passionate and engaging …

Read more

Discipleship Starts Small

For as long as I have been involved in church leadership, ministry leaders have lamented the lack of discipleship within the local church. To remedy the problem, churches, para-church ministries, and publishing houses introduce new discipleship methods and tools every year or two that are supposed to revolutionize the discipleship process. The problem? After all …

Read more

Book Review: Designed to Lead

Not all pastors are born leaders. Many churches do not develop leaders. Most churches haven’t even thought about leadership development. Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck know these truths and have written Designed to Lead to address those issues. Churches need to be developing leaders and pastors need to be always growing in their leadership ability. …

Read more

Book Review: The Tech-Wise Family

Occasionally, a book is not what I expect it to be. Andy Crouch’s new book, The Tech-Wise Family is not what I expected. The book was recently recommended to me, and since I’m preaching a series on the family right now, I decided I should at least take the time to look into Crouch’s suggestions for how …

Read more

We Need More Awe

We stood several miles away and stared at Mt. Merapi in the pitch black Indonesian night as it belched red fire and sparks into the sky and leaked molten lava down its slopes. I was speechless. Awestruck. We experience precious little awe in our lives. We rarely stare at a sunset or lay on our …

Read more

Promises of Proverbs

Several years ago I sat with an older pastor and asked for advice on how to better handle myself in contentious situations. I had participated in denominational meetings with him and had watched in amazement as he kept his cool in heated conversations. His advice to me was to spend time in Proverbs. Read it …

Read more

Seeing Your Blindspots

You have blindspots in your life. Admit it. Deal with it. No one is immune. But why do we have blindspots? Part of the reason was to do with a portion of our brains known as the superior temporal sulcus. Great name, I know, but according to Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen in Thanks for the …

Read more

To Run Fast, You Have To Run Fast

Emblazoned on every cross-country t-shirt in my high school days was a quote from the  track and cross-country head coach, Skip Frye: Those of you who know me know that cross-country running is not my strength, but I think I get something of what Coach Frye was trying to get at with his runners. If you …

Read more