I believe this with all my heart: Christian leaders need close friends who can serve as “pain partners.” The phrase “pain partner” is from Samuel Chand’s book, “Leadership Pain: The Classroom for Growth” and one I highly recommend. Here is a quick 8-minute summary of the phrase pain partner that I recorded on our church’s…
Photo by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash Deuteronomy, written by Moses, is a sermon he preached to a generation that had been born, grown up, and learned of the promises of God in the wilderness. This generation is about to transition into the Promised Land. Moses realizes he’ll go no further and they know he’ll go…
Photo by Felix Koutchinski on Unsplash A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. Proverbs 19:11 Jesus-like wisdom makes us patient people and patient people are forgiving people. Instead of becoming irritated, wise, and patient people overlook the sins of others. Q: What does it mean to overlook the sin in other…
Photo by Omar Prestwich on Unsplash Grouchiness about other pastors’ churches? Their size? Their coolness? The number of conversions they see? Their creativity in programming, marketing, and sermons? Nope. Not me. Never. I promise. I’m always kingdom-minded and thankful for the work that God is doing in and through other churches. God tells us to…
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash Each and every time I attend an event that the North American Mission Board facilitates they submit several questions to participants for the purpose of personal engagement. Too often we hear great content but fail to reflect and intentionally think about how we can appropriate certain truths or principles into our lives.…
Photo by Julio Rionaldo on Unsplash I don’t hate my sin like I know Jesus calls me to. I compare and contrast. I downplay. I fail to see at times the far-reaching effects of sin. I fail to see that just as God has created us as communal beings, my sin is also communal and has a negative…
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash Pray. Sure, I pray every week but there is more intensity and frequency in my prayer life leading up to Easter. And I pray with more expectancy, too. Invite liberally. I don’t know how many people I invited to our services at Easter, but I’m certain it was more than what I…
I want to interact with those around me, respond to sin (either mine or others), and generally live in such a way that I put the good news of Jesus on display. Of course, I’ll never do this perfectly but I should strive to make everything I can in my personal life point to the…
I recently finished Tyler Staton’s book, “Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools.” There are some books that I trudge through by the sheer power of pride so that I can say, “I read that book.” Yes, I realize that’s not a good motivation! I’m growing in giving myself permission to simply put a book aside…
Lent is first mentioned in the fifth canon produced at the Council of Nicea (canons were practical directions in addition to the Creed). Nicea took place when the Christian church was unified — before the East/West split of 1054, & before the Reformation in 1517. In this fifth canon, Lent is not explained, just mentioned,…
