Preaching is one of my primary tasks as a pastor. So, it’s something I must continually develop (see Developing the Preaching Gift and Honing My Craft). In Doing Church as a Team, Wayne Cordeiro writes, “When we stop learning, we just stop.” Cordeiro relates the story of Jigoro Kano, who … founded the art of… Continue Reading »
The Church needs endurance! I’m writing a series of prayers for the Church, offering a prayer on a different topic each week. So far, I’ve prayed for awakening, transformational leaders, urgency, hope, health, compassion, action, unity, power, and favor. Endurance is an essential quality for followers of Jesus. And, it’s been on my mind a… Continue Reading »
Today, I spoke at our local ministerium’s weekly Lenten Lunch service (services last from 12:05 to 12:30, followed by lunch in a different church each week during Lent). Today, we were at West Side UMC, where my wife is the pastor. It was a rare opportunity for the two of us to serve together. This… Continue Reading »
The Church needs favor! I’m writing a series of prayers for the Church, offering a prayer on a different topic each week. So far, I’ve prayed for awakening, transformational leaders, urgency, hope, health, compassion, action, unity, and power. With God’s favor, anything is possible! O God, we belong to you. You have called us and… Continue Reading »
TED is a great place for ideas and inspiration. And, as a communicator, I like to watch them to inspire me to be a better communicator. In fact, I’ve recently started watching TED Talks while walking on the treadmill (at least once a week) as part of my strategy to grow as a communicator. TED… Continue Reading »
The Church needs power! I’m writing a series of prayers for the Church, offering a prayer on a different topic each week. So far, I’ve prayed for awakening, transformational leaders, urgency, hope, health, compassion, action, and unity. Jesus said … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will… Continue Reading »
Our most important responsibility as parents is discipling our children! While we can always do better, it is something we’ve been intentional about from the beginning. Some of our previous posts include: Praying the Scriptures for Your Children, Praying for Your Children, Family Devotion, Teaching Kids to Pray, and “Praying Circles Around Your Children” (these… Continue Reading »
Praying for your children is a non-negotiable. And, I just read a great resource for parents who want to pray for their kids: Praying Circles Around Your Children by Mark Batterson. Last year, I read The Circle Maker, also by Mark Batterson. I wrote several posts about it. The last one, with links to all… Continue Reading »
Lent is an ideal time for personal reflection and self-examination. It’s also a great time to remember the importance of accountability. Recently, I came across a list of twenty-one daily accountability questions used by John and Charles Wesley during their days in the Holy Club at Oxford University. It’s a pretty intense list of reflective… Continue Reading »
Five years ago today, Ethan joined our family! Of course, Ethan, 8-months-old then, joined our family reluctantly, at the time. We had just met him in his foster home the day before. From there, he adjusted very quickly! We celebrated his “gotcha day” last night by going to Fun Central, a local indoor play area.… Continue Reading »