Did you ever attempt something really great only to have it drag on too slowly? I have…
In fact most everything I’ve ever attempted in ministry has gotten off to a slow start. At least slower than we anticipated it should or would.
Two years ago we launched a new service in a movie theater about 25 [...]

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Had a heart-wrenching conversation this week.
Met a man who lost his very young son to the H1N1 flu a couple of years ago. The boy had no symptoms, simply went to sleep and never woke up.
The father, who is a seriously Godly man has been barraged with the usual set of “answers” as to why [...]

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Think about this–you can trade space for time.
In the past few months I’ve spoken with several pastors frustrated because their churches were outgrowing their space. Each one seemed heaven-bent on spending more money to rent a bigger building.
But why waste money if you don’t have to?
I long ago learned that you can trade space for [...]

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Just spent three days teaching a seminar with some wonderful people in Paris.
The seminar, which I like to limit to around 30 people had 95 show up. I was delighted to find a very mixed race group of pastors.
Seems the immigration “problem” that has so disturbed much of Europe is presenting mostly blessings to the [...]

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Every wonder why the gospel is growing so fast in developing nations?
A conversation in staff meeting gave me a new insight. We were discussing the loss of a couple of families who find our church not “scholarly” enough in its teaching.
Granted we aren’t very scholarly—used to be but gave it up for a more relational [...]

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Who is this carpenter Joseph?
Today we joke about our friends being nail-benders and wood-butchers, but who was Joseph of Nazareth? And, why was he entrusted with the care and discipling of the Messiah?
Some suspect he died at a young age after fathering several other children through Mary. Other than that, we’ll never know the answers [...]

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We baptized a whole bunch of people at the beach two days ago.
When we started our church, the ocean was our spot for this important spiritual declaration. We slipped into turning baptisms into a “church event” which eventually cost momentum, etc.
After that we moved baptism indoors so there would be a crowd to cheer for [...]

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I’ve been suffering lately.
Two ministry projects got off the ground then stalled after limited growth. One has been going for two years, another for less than a year.
But, six weeks ago one “popped” with surprising growth and held it. The other did the same last week. Very nice. But, what if I’d followed the advice [...]

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Got into an interesting discussion the other day.
Our team was talking about the spiritual dynamics of our “down days.” You know, those days when the enemy seems to have stolen all your hope.
Two events came to mind. The first was an afternoon sitting on the back pew in a tiny chapel that was about to [...]

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Just got back from a men’s retreat in Missouri. They do it up right. Great food, good ministry and tons of fun!
The fun included a bass-fishing contest and several other off-the charts events. But the best for me was shooting guns–real guns and lots of them.
I got to shoot a shotgun but missed the clay [...]

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