Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
There’s a myth that says, “Practice makes perfect.” But there’s also a fairly common rebuttal that says, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent.” Whether you are a musician, an athlete, a communicator, or whatever, just because you do something over and over doesn’t mean you’re getting better at it. You may simply be reinforcing … Read more
The Church needs to give up control and let God be in charge. It’s his Church after all. I read a prayer in The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson (see 5 Takeaways From “The Circle Maker”), which has stuck with me ever since I read it: “Lord, do something unpredictable and uncontrollable.” It’s a scary … Read more
The words awesome, incredible, amazing, and even life-changing can often be over-used to describe events or experiences. But I wouldn’t have a problem using these words to describe the 2013 Global Leadership Summit that took place in the last two days! The event was attended by more than 80,000 leaders across the US at more … Read more
Over the last few months, some words by the Apostle Paul have been shaping my thinking about preaching. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2.4-5 … My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. I did this so that your faith might not … Read more
I recently wrote Rethinking Sermon Preparation where I talked about the nature of sermon preparation (God works on and in the preacher first so that the preacher can help hearers take a similar journey). This post is about finding your rhythm for sermon preparation. It’s easy to fall into a rut with sermon preparation. We … Read more
The area I’ve worked on the hardest in the past year is sermon preparation. It’s always a struggle to make time to prepare sermons because it’s hard work and there are plenty of other things to do! As I wrote in my post, Preaching Requires Investment, Bill Hybels has been quoted to say … Preaching … Read more
The Church needs patience and persistence! I invite you to pray with me for the Church as I continue my way through a series of prayer posts. See links to previous prayers below. The Church needs patience because it usually takes time to experience transformation. It takes time to lead transformation and to shape (or … Read more
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading some books by Jon Gordon. I’ve enjoyed them all, but I think my favorite so far is Training Camp. I read it awhile back, but it’s especially appropriate now as NFL teams begin training camps this week! Training Camp is an inspirational fable that follows the story … Read more
The Church needs to stay humble and hungry! I’m in the midst of a long series, posting prayers for the Church (see links to previous prayers below). I’m not sure when this series will end, but in the meantime, I invite you to pray with me for the Church! A couple of months ago, Mark … Read more
Seedbed posted an interview of Michael Quicke, who teaches at Northern Seminary. The interview is broken into three parts: one, two, and three. Quicke has written a couple of books on preaching that are actually still on my reading pile: 360-Degree Preaching: Hearing, Speaking, and Living the Word (paperback) and 360-Degree Leadership: Preaching to Transform … Read more