Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Last month, I mentioned the free online preaching conference, Peach Better Sermons. I watched most of the 3.5-hour event last Thursday (The Christian Post wrote an article about the event). It was a great event. The speakers included Perry Noble, Jud Wilhite, Vanable Moody, Andy Stanley, Dr. Charles Stanley, Louie Giglio, Jeff Foxworthy, and Dan … Read more
Last week, I heard our bishop note that “the early Methodists were on fire for Jesus Christ.” I thought about that during a time of prayer a couple of days ago, and as I thought about it, I remembered something I learned way back in a physics class. In physics, I learned that heat travels … Read more
Last Thursday evening, I discovered that our blog had been hacked earlier in the day. But this wasn’t the first time it’s been hacked. A few months ago, the site went several weeks with files infected by malware before I learned about it. And our first encounter with malware occurred last May, when our webhost … Read more
Recently, I’ve written a couple posts on The Circle Maker (see 1.0 and 2.0). One particular section made me think about shaping culture. Batterson writes about “spiritual priming” (127). In it, he talks about the importance of the primer in painting. He states … It may seem like the primer is unnecessary … but it … Read more
I’m reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson (see my previous post, “The Circle Maker” 1.0). Picking up where I left off, here are more quotes that are impacting me. First, I love the phrase used in the book to describe kneeling prayer: “Stop, drop, and pray.” We tend to think that as we grow, … Read more
I recently asked, Are You Honing Your Craft? The question forces you to narrow your focus and to name your craft. While there are several things I’d like to be good at, I realize I only have enough time and energy to focus on a very few number of things to develop at any given … Read more
As soon as I heard about The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, just before it was published recently, I knew it was a book that I wanted to read as soon as possible. I’m only about halfway through it, but I wanted to start blogging about it, because I know it’s going to take more … Read more
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Yesterday, I finished reading the book of Lamentations and thought chapter three was a fitting way to begin the Lenten journey. The name Lamentations gives you an idea of the nature of the book. Lamentations is a funeral song. It’s written about, and in the midst of, … Read more
A few weeks ago, hours after preaching on persistence, interestingly enough, I read a great story about the diligence of Steve Martin. In it, the author begins with a quote of a 2007 interview of Martin … I remember getting my first banjo, and reading the book saying ‘this is how you play the C … Read more
Last month, Joleen and I celebrated 18 years of marriage (Really?!). It’s been quite an adventure. Everyone has challenges, and we’ve certainly had ours! The first 9 years of our marriage were intense enough—married in 1994, graduated from seminary and moved to PA to co-pastor a small, dying church in 1995, moved to Williamsburg to … Read more