Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
The first leg of the journey completed! Last evening, we along with five other families, completed the four group sessions. They consisted of one all-day session and three evening sessions. Some of the topics we covered were the adoption process, positive adoption language, medical information, bonding and attachment, discipline, loss and grieving, and the search … Read more
Recently, Rev. Dr. Tom Salsgiver, wrote an editorial for our conference publication called, “Keepers of the Aquarium or Fishers of People.” The article got my leadership juices flowing and I started thinking specifically about pastoral leadership in a “fishers of people” context. Pastoral Leadership In a “Fishers of People” ContextBy Randy Willis Tom Salsgiver recently … Read more
Today, we concluded our series on “Navigating Life: Doing Life God’s Way!” We believe it was an important series; we certainly hope that it was helpful for the hrist followers in our congregations! We don’t always collaborate on our sermon series, but this series grew out of a conversation we had while traveling to Tennessee … Read more
We will occasionally post reports on the progress of our dissertation work. For this first report, we wish we had more progress to report than we do. It has been 5 weeks since our class, and while we always need a break after class, we had hoped to be a little further along than we … Read more
I recently wrote this piece for the Manor Hill Charge newsletter for Lent … Jesus’ Ministry Jesus ministered to the crowds and then he drew the Twelve aside to teach them more. He taught them who he was. He taught them about the kingdom. He took them deeper than he did the crowd. The Twelve … Read more
Whew! What a week. The "dissertation-writing and church-based research class" that we took this past week on campus was pretty overwhelming. It was a very helpful week, though, but it is simply the beginning of a long journey that will, God willing, culminate with graduation in May 2008! I wrote earlier this week on Wednesday … Read more
I am posting this while we’re on our afternoon break. As you may know Joleen and I are in Wilmore, KY this week for our ninth and final class in the D.Min. program at Asbury Theological Seminary. This course begins the final 17-month stretch of this journey. It promises to be a meaningful, albeit grueling, … Read more
Read Luke 1.26-38 Mary’s response is arguably the most amazing response of any human being in the Scriptures. God asked her to throw away her reputation (through an "illegitimate" pregnancy). Add to this that Mary is very young, and she simply says, "I am the Lord’s servant. Let it happen as you have said." What … Read more
Heart disease is the number one killer in America. And spiritual heart disease is the number one killer in the church. Today we begin our Advent/Christmas series that will help us to develop healthy hearts. We’ll try to do so by looking at how the main characters of the story each responded to God. We’ll … Read more
While I believe that most of us really want to be generous, and most of us really do want to honor God with our whole lives (including our money), my guess is that the line for those willing to sacrifice is a lot shorter! I don’t know about you, but the thing that scares me … Read more