Few purchases are more important than a mattress. You spend about ⅓ of your life sleeping and huge amounts of research attest to the importance of quality sleep. Those two factors lead me to believe that what you sleep on is equally important as the amount you sleep each night. As a single income family,…
When Ministry Causes Misery pt. 2
Time doesn’t always make things easier… as time passes, as camp is one day closer to the end, I’m just as heart-wrenched as yesterday. As much as I don’t like it, I’m counting this joy. As I said yesterday, this camp is better off without me at it and I thank God for that fact.…
When Ministry Causes Misery pt. 1
Tonight I sit here at my house with a heavy heart. My heart is heavy because I’m here and just 180 miles away something great is happening. Near Capitan, NM the first Joni & Friends Family Retreat in New Mexico is happening and I won’t be there. I want to be there so badly for so many…
Do Americans Hate Soccer?
Well, the World Cup has started and now our quadrennial fascination with soccer has begun. It will be short-lived as it only lasts a month or so, less if you are only cheering for the team from the USA. But during that time many Americans will cheer for people that we barely know, and get…
Are you too old to live generously?
I hear lots of excuses for not being a generous person and age is certainly one of them. Why do we give? What do we give? How do we give. Here is a video about a lady that is not too old to be generous at 98 years old. Below is an excerpt from a…
Smart Decisions
This weekend I’m preaching Smart Decisions. it got me to thinking about my favorite Smart Decision resources. I love tools that help me live as wise instead of unwise. I’m not mentioning the Bible in this list because each of these three volumes maintain that the Bible is THE source of truth, especially when making…
Health and Wellness
Spiritual health is very important is available to everyone. Here are some resources that I love that can help you achieve greater spiritual health. Just like any kind of health equipment these all come with a warning. Use them correctly, use them appropriately, and remember the goal. The goal of using a treadmill is to…
Youth Ministry Sellout – pt. 2
In my last Youth Ministry Sellout Post I talked about my move out of youth ministry and some new perspectives I have since said sellout. In this post I’m going look back and talk about some successes and failures in youth ministry. To be clear, some of these are mine, some of these I witnessed…
Youth Ministry Sellout – pt. 1
About six months ago I experienced a big career change. For almost 15 years I worked with the same demographic, teens. I accepted my first job in youth ministry just before my 19th birthday at a small Southern Baptist church in Guymon, OK. It was the blind leading the blind. There weren’t many youth and…
Effective VS Efficient
Last week I preached about a topic called Subsidiarity. It really takes root in 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. I love the term but it can easily be confused with just trying to make things more efficient. It should not be looked at that way. Instead, it should be seen as a way to make a system…