Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
During Lent at West Side, the sermon series and small group studies are focusing on prayer. We’re looking at some of the prayers that Jesus prayed, especially during his final week. I’m providing a prayer guide each week during Lent and encouraging everyone to set apart time daily or weekly to reflect and pray. Here’s … Read more
The most recent book of the 15 Books That Have Shaped Me as a Leader that I read was Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels. While not specifically a leadership book, it’s written by a leader on a topic that leaders must develop. There are a few authors/leaders that I consider must-reads. For … Read more
I recently wrote about Bishop Robert Schnase’s book, The Balancing Act (Bishop Schnase is author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations). I enjoyed the short book, which works well as a 30-day devotional, and plan to highlight a few sections on the blog over the next few/several days. Early on in the book, Bishop Schnase … Read more
The worship song, “Change My Heart, Oh God” (by Eddie Espinosa, 1982) has been a meaningful and challenging song for me ever since I first heard it a couple decades ago. Lately, I’ve been thinking about it in regard to sermon preparation. A common pitfall for preachers is to preach to others but not to … Read more
In their book, Prayer-Saturated Kids, Cheryl Sacks and Arlyn Lawrence report … A 1993 Gallup poll revealed that among married couples who attend church together regularly, the divorce rate is one out of two. That’s the same statistic as for marriages outside the church. However, among married couples who pray together daily, the divorce rate … Read more
Three years ago, I wrote Praying for Pastors, a post that includes a 7-day prayer guide for pastors (I encourage you to print it and use it to pray for your pastor, including those of you who are part of Centre Grove or West Side). I’ve been thinking about the prayer guide for a few … Read more
Ikeep thinking I’ve written my last post in this series, but here’s yet another one. Maybe it’ll be my last (for a while). I’m posting another update mainly because the week after the last post, I made significant changes to it — more in structure/grammar than in content. I think it feels more natural this … Read more
This is another revision of my preaching prayer guide (see Desperate Preachers 1.0 and 2.0). It undergoes revisions every week. Since the last post, I’ve gone from phrases to keywords, which gives more freedom. So, for what it’s worth here’s the latest desperate preacher’s prayer guide … Lord, prepare me to communicate your message to … Read more
Three months ago, I wrote that I started using Twitter (click here for my Twitter stream). I also wrote about Twitter Web Apps shortly after that (which probably needs updating). Over the last few months, I’ve marked a number of tweets as “favorites.” Periodically, I’ll blog some of my favorite favorites—statements that inspire and challenge … Read more
Two months ago, I started an experiment (see Desperate Preachers 1.0) writing down what I prayed in the hours before preaching on Sunday morning. It’s been a valuable experience. I was surprised how much I wrote the first week and how well it came together. The other thing I noticed is how much I revised … Read more