Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? (James 2:5) I suspect that James wrote these words while thinking of what he’d seen of God in his…
It’s a simple reality that we can easily forget: those places we are most comfortable are precisely the places we’re most likely to be disobedient. Am I comfortable in my marriage because things are going pretty good? I’m probably not listening for God to tell me how to love my spouse better. Am I comfortable in…
I can’t remember if it was Andy Stanley or Craig Groeschel (or maybe both) who said that the greatest danger to future success is present success. I couldn’t agree more. But I’ll take it a step further: great success in what God has called us to in the past is the greatest obstacle to discerning what…
As Jesus neared Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he sent two disciples ahead to a small village along the route, telling them to retrieve a donkey and her previously unridden colt they would find there. Anticipating that the owners would have some questions about what the disciples were doing, he instructed them to say “The Lord needs them”.…
I’ve been hearing this question a lot recently. It’s an old thought, this idea that all roads lead to God, but I suspect that The Shack movie has given it new life recently, with its implicit universalism. (For the record, I’m not an anti-Shackian…it had some excellent insights into God’s nature that are perfectly biblical.…
I attend a lot of meetings. And the thing is, I don’t mind most of them. I won’t call them a joy, but I wouldn’t call them a “necessary evil” either. The truth is somewhere in the middle. But…there are some meetings that really suck the life out of me. Please don’t hold one of…
Faithfulness isn’t a complicated concept, but it is one that requires constant attention. Faithfulness is more than just doing the right thing. It’s often about doing the brave thing…but not the stupid thing. As usual, Jesus said it best: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the…
Here are the two most important leadership truths I’ve learned since becoming a lead pastor: Culture eats vision for breakfast Vision without strategy creates a culture of apathy Culture eats vision for breakfast I don’t know who said it first, but I’ve heard it many times from different leadership thinkers…and I’ve thought about it constantly over the last…
I came across an article this morning that I think you’ll find very interesting. In short, it argues that the traditional date for celebrating Jesus’ birth (i.e. Dec. 25th) was chosen for reasons that had nothing to do with pagan festivals. I’m sure you’ve heard that Christmas is actually a transformed pagan holiday. In my…
One of the most commonly asked – and least satisfyingly answered – questions in the church is this: how should Christians relate to culture? Answers to this extremely important question range from “Christians should have nothing to do with culture” to “Christians should be directing culture”. At least part of the reason for the…