Good communication has to do as much with what you don’t say as what you do say. I am a short preacher. I preach shorter for three reasons. One, it’s easy to maintain a strong devotion to our children’s ministry with shorter services. But our habits are to continue adding more and more […]

Sometimes Christianity can become more like empiricism than the supernatural revelation it is. And it is just as easy to begin to see the presentation of messages as good self-help material. Does preaching have to be pragmatic? Well, first, I think so, yes. But it is always more than that. It […]

I have been keeping the spiritual discipline of writing an essay on prayer five days a week. I’ll spare you my essays. They were written just for me and the start of an outline for a book. But I thought I’d share a quick glance of on an outline I did on […]

One of the creative and driving forces of the 70’s Jesus awakening died in February. I just heard about it yesterday. Larry Norman was a controversial figure in the Jesus People movement and for decades after. He left a touching note to his audience which can be found at his website www.larrynorman.com. […]

I have ten truths that I think everyone needs to follow to stay healthy and in the battle.
I have concluded I must believe in these things to be standing tall at the end of the fight.

Everyone dies. I should treasure lives around me. I should be prepared for the loss […]

There are four kinds of snobs that bother me; First, jazz devotees; Two, wine experts; Three, elitist Christians; and Four, those who are snobbish about the other three. We live in a one-up world. Jesus made his mark against snobbery by calling himself God’s willful servant. I want only to be […]

A few years back I shared in a seminar presentation in Rochester, NY, with Jim Dethmer. Jim had broken church life down into three major components. The first was the Cause. The cause of a church had to be known for the church to be effective. The scriptures give us a quick […]

I think one of the most significant fronts we face as Christians interested in outreach and healing is the tension between biology’s influence on behavior and the will and psychological bearings on behavior. There is no doubt that at least “biology plus psychology equals behavior.” But how does the spiritual component enter in here?
It is […]

I have been thinking about money and church. As best I can tell most churches need more money. I think money is good. I am not sure we are hitting the mark on motivating people to see that churches overloaded with money would be a good thing.
The church I am leading has plenty of requests for […]

I was waiting in line to see the movie “Narnia” this weekend. A woman in front of us just went “nuclear” on her husband. She misunderstood the ticket salesman and thought her husband had agreed to sit in different sections because the theatre was full. It was a real blast off let me […]

Paul Tournier wrote a little book a number of years ago. The title was simple, Secrets.
There is a lot about our accountability talk in church that evaporates the realm of real secrecy. Or, often there is a guilt feeling about what we don’t want to share.
He says (p.9),

“So, to have secrets, to know how […]

Why are we bothered by trauma, pain and evil?
 
I was closing down a church plant I have been working at for the last nearly two years. Lori and I are painfully and joyously relocating to Boise, Idaho. We will be taking on leadership of New Heights Church there and continuing to lead Square One […]

II Cor. 6:14….”Don’t be unequally yoked together”
The word here for unequally is a word that’s root means “imbalance” The idea is something like the scales of justice. The message is don’t get in a relationship with someone who shares differing values  in a manner that you are the "influencee" and they are the influencer.
I […]

I Peter 1:2 "…[T]he sanctifying work of the Spirit…
Sanctification means to be set apart for specific purposes. And to be special in behavior and make up as a result. If you are sanctified you are different.You march to a different drum.  
When we are good when we don’t mean to be that is the sanctification […]

More the things Christians should know…
15. How to Manage and order their time by His mastery: People are time starved. We need to teach them to ration and protect their time according to their true priorities.
16. How to experience freedom from fears: Fear is the destroyer of faith and we must defeat it in […]