Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Here are a few questions that keep coming up … and our responses. Since we first announced that we were adopting a child (January 2007), it’s been interesting to hear what questions keep coming up. Here are a few: “Have you heard anything about the baby yet?” We hear this question often, mostly from people … Read more
We all tend to put off doing things we either don’t want to do or we know will take a lot of energy! I began my message on Sunday by saying, “Hello. My name is Randy and I am a procrastinator!” I was holding a copy of my edited proposal draft, which we wrote about … Read more
Helpful resource for leaders who love to read! In a previous post, we talked about the importance of lifelong learning. If you’re a leader, you must be a reader. If you need help knowing what to read, a great place to start is 800ceoread. For a while, 800ceoread operated InBubbleWrap where they gave away books … Read more
We just received our passports so that we can travel to Korea when the time comes to pick up our child. With changes at the borders with Canada and Mexico, we were not sure how long it would take to get our passports (there had been a backlog as widely reported in the media). Thankfully, … Read more
A prayer guide for those who lead others on adventures. About a year and a half ago, two of the three churches I was leading at the time (Alexandria and Barree UMCs) united to form one new congregation (Hope UMC). During the two-year process leading up to the merger, the leadership team did a lot … Read more
Movie inspires viewers to keep dreaming! Last week, we watched The Astronaut Farmer. The movie made me think about dreams and creativity. A few years ago, I read John Maxwell’s Thinking for a Change, which includes a sad survey on the state of our creativity. The survey reveals that as we age, we become less … Read more
Life in places other than the mountaintop. The FOCs (Followers of Christ), the youth group of the Manor Hill United Methodist Church that I serve, joined other area youth for a hike at Trough Creek State Park. We ended up in three groups: those who did the mountain at a good pace, those who did … Read more
We have been approved for the adoption of a child from a foreign country by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Yesterday we received Form I-797C (all government forms seem to have form numbers!) from the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. The form simply grants us … Read more
We got our proposal edits back; now we must make lots of corrections! Last week we received our proposal drafts back from the editor at Asbury. Even though our mentor describes our work as “clean” (in terms of writing, grammar, etc.), there is still a lot of red! (Thanks, Judy! 😀 ). The red marks … Read more
Fasting is an overlooked ancient spiritual discipline that helps Christ-followers grow spiritually. I grew up in a tradition where fasting was an observed discipline. I grew up hearing stories of men and women who fasted, anywhere from one day to days at a time. In recent years, Joleen and I have been practicing the Wesley … Read more