It’s Saturday morning, and I’m taking care of the kids. Not just my nine year-old son and nine month-old daughter, but two of my nephews had just spent the night too. They all just finished breakfast and the boys were looking for something to do. “Hey Uncle Dan. Can Samuel watch Scooby Doo 2?” Hmmm… [...]
Feb 06, 2012 | Categories: READ, the latest, worldviews | Tags: bible passages, biblical truths, ephesians 4, filmmakers, focus on the family, harry potter books, pluggedin online, questionable content, romans 12, scooby doo, scooby doo 2, spiritual content, tv programs | Leave A Comment »
For the record, I hate talking about politics. Specifically, I hate how divided people become when talking about politicians and how they deal with the issues. I know that ‘hate’ is a pretty strong word, and I rarely use it around here. But I feel like it’s important for people to understand that by sharing [...]
Feb 03, 2012 | Categories: activist faith, engaged in culture, SERVE, the latest, worldviews | Tags: barack obama, faith, goodwill, governmental policies, hearts, legislating morality, love, national prayer breakfast, politicians | 5 Comments »
During the month when my book finally came out in a print version, I’m not surprised that it was the best-seller in this month’s list of stuff that our readers are picking up. But one thing I think is nice to see in this month’s list is a focus on three key themes… Missions and [...]
Feb 02, 2012 | Categories: READ, the latest | Tags: american pilgrimage, bryant l myers, christian faith, dave kraft, joan chittister, jud wilhite, lists, missionary, monastery, paul elie, poverty, print books, uncensored truth | Leave A Comment »
Other women love their churches and their people, but they know they aren’t being given the opportunity to think, strategize, innovate, and create new ways of doing church that both men and women find appealing. Often when they have expressed their desire for more influence, they were blocked, stonewalled, or stalled. These women have acquiesced [...]
Feb 01, 2012 | Categories: book reviews, READ, the latest | Tags: churches, eve, Jim Henderson, leadership, men and women, The Resignation of Eve, tyndale, typical church, women's roles | Leave A Comment »
On Thursday nights, our core team gathers to eat and plan and pray and dream about launching a second campus of our congregation. It’s the one meeting of my week that I’m not responsible for—the one church meeting that I can just attend. And I get to attend as the Sunday morning worship leader for this [...]
Jan 31, 2012 | Categories: for reflection, life of worship, PRAY, the latest | Tags: anticipation, awe, challenges, experiences, meeting room, morning worship, mystery, preacher, sacred space, scripture, sunday morning, surprise, worship leader | 4 Comments »
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV) Then the angel showed me [...]
Jan 30, 2012 | Categories: authentic christianity, the latest, worldviews | Tags: accursed, adam and eve, condemnation, genesis, guilt, healing of the nations, judgement, lamb, lord god, moral compass, nakedness, revelation, sinfulness, throne of god, tree of life, walk with god, water of life | 4 Comments »
Reading blogs gives me a chance to step into the lives of others. I often come across many Christians who bash gathering in church for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons are painfully legitimate and some are simply unwilling to stay and make a difference because they come to be served, instead of [...]
Jan 26, 2012 | Categories: authentic christianity, SERVE, the latest, what's hot, worldviews | Tags: atonement, authenticity, bible, blogs, christian churches, christians, church bashing, church hopping, cliques, good intentions, Jesus, mormon, mormons, testimony | 2 Comments »
I was at the drug store yesterday, in line for a prescription, and a woman in a purple jacket melted down…. just… went to pieces right there in the prescription line. “I can’t DO THIS ANYMORE!” She screamed at the stunned cashier, who blinked quickly while everyone stood there staring, watching Purple Jacket Lady hurtle [...]
Jan 25, 2012 | Categories: authentic christianity, engaged in culture, the latest, what's hot | Tags: anxiety, brokenness, differences, failure, fear, grace, Jesus, love, poverty | 9 Comments »
Ours is a t-shirt and flip-flops sort of church, so I can get away with wearing just about anything that falls into the “modest” category. Plus, I’m a “musician” (said in hushed tones with hand covering mouth). So, black it is. And black it’s been for nearly three months: My favorite pair of skinny jeans. [...]
Jan 24, 2012 | Categories: for reflection, life of worship, PRAY, the latest, what's hot | Tags: anticipation, excitement, expressions, goosebumps, musician, relationship with god, sadness, skinny jeans, turtle neck sweater, worship leader | 11 Comments »
“We need to get together sometime.” I said this to my friend as I had just finished unloading my stress on her willing shoulders. It’s because of my previous post that I realized ministry had become an unhealthy habit; too much ministry anyway. I had forgotten what it’s like to simply have coffee with a [...]
Jan 23, 2012 | Categories: ministry, SERVE, the latest, what's hot | Tags: addiction, burn out, church, church relations, Friendship, friendships, God, ministry opportunity, motives, stress, unhealthy habit | Leave A Comment »
What is wrong with me? I came to church with stress hanging on me like an oversized jacket. My heart had focused on people instead of God’s provisions. Ministry failed to excite me. And then it hit me… Like quick sand, the more I struggled the faster the mire sucked me under. Soon, I didn’t [...]
Jan 20, 2012 | Categories: ministry, SERVE, the latest, what's hot | Tags: addiction, bad attitude, church, family ministry, God, hard truths, heart, ministry, prayer, provisions, real life relationships, stress | 11 Comments »
Over the past year, as I’ve had a crash course in refugee resettlement, I’ve learned so much. I am grateful every day for the stories I’ve heard and the facts I’ve gleaned about this vulnerable, misunderstood, and often forgotten population. I’ve learned: That only one percent of the 14 million-plus refugees in the world will ever be [...]
Jan 19, 2012 | Categories: activist faith, engaged in culture, ministry, missions, SERVE, the latest, what's hot | Tags: burma, case manager, catholic family service, citizen, green card, illegal immigrants, interpreter, kenya, rations, refugee resettlement, refugees, tent | 7 Comments »
Jehovah Rapha. Among many other things, God reveals and refers to Himself as the Lord our Healer. So Moses cried out in prayer to God. God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and the water turned sweet. That’s the place where God set up rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing [...]
Jan 18, 2012 | Categories: authentic christianity, ministry, the latest | Tags: christian history, exodus 15, faith healing, hand of god, healer, healing power, healings, jehovah rapha, john alexander dowie, medical explanation, miraculous healing, practicing medicine, prayer to god, restorer, testimony of god | 10 Comments »
On Guilt: “It is about as hard to absolve yourself of your own guilt as it is to sit in your own lap. Wrongdoing sparks guilt sparks wrongdoing ad nauseam, and we all try to disguise the grim process from both ourselves and everybody else. In order to break the circuit we need friends before [...]
Jan 17, 2012 | Categories: authentic christianity, life of worship, PRAY, spiritual practice, the latest | Tags: buechner, faith, God, guilt, guiltiness, Jesus, mental peace, presence, smile, spiritual health, stranger, vicious circle | 5 Comments »
We finally did it! Our family just sponsored a child, and we couldn’t be more excited! It’s something that we’ve wanted to do for a long time. The only reason we haven’t done it sooner is because we just wanted to be very prayerful and intentional about who we sponsored. We’re in this for the [...]
Jan 13, 2012 | Categories: activist faith, haiti '12, orphan care, poverty, SERVE, the latest | Tags: central haiti, cholera outbreak, clean water, community development projects, drouin, HELP, Help End Local Poverty, help one now, long haul, medical care, port-au-prince, proper sanitation, sponsorship | 1 Comment »
As an eleven year-old dreamer in Dumas, a small town in the Texas panhandle, I attended mission classes at our local Baptist church and wondered if God would call me to be a missionary to Africa. The thought thrilled and terrified me at the same time. But I simply prayed, “God, use me as you see best. Wherever [...]
Jan 12, 2012 | Categories: activist faith, engaged in culture, ministry, missions, SERVE, the latest | Tags: affordable housing, amarillo texas, atrocities, catholic family service, conference of catholic bishops, cooperative agreement, diverse city, food pantry, persecution, refugee programs, senior citizens, victims of war | 1 Comment »
I read an article in USA Today that talked about the rise of the ‘So Whats.’ What’s that? It’s people who do not claim to be a people of faith or staunch atheists; instead, they are a growing group who say, “So what?” As one person interviewed said, “(Growing up) I was saturated with both [...]
Jan 11, 2012 | Categories: engaged in culture, the latest, worldviews | Tags: apathy, atheist, atheists, baylor university, church planter, eternal wisdom, followers of jesus, lifeway, personal authority, personal experience, religious identity, research survey, scripture and tradition, secularization, unanswerable questions, unseen friends, usa today, young adults | 7 Comments »
Read John 13 “To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, ‘It’s all right, Abraham. I never intended that you should actually slay the lad. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love.’” [...]
Jan 10, 2012 | Categories: ministry, SERVE, the latest | Tags: christianity, comfort zone, excuse, materialism, perversion, political correctness, pursuit of god, self righteousness | Leave A Comment »
We all have mundane moments. You know, the ones that are boring and barely worth noting. Like the drab experience of checking out at the grocery store… Or the hazy everydayness of making the morning coffee… Or the commute home… Then we have moments of grand gesture. Like wearing dark oversized robes and a square [...]
Jan 09, 2012 | Categories: creativity and art, for reflection, PRAY, the latest | Tags: amazing things, art, beautiful moments, beautiful music, church, creativity, emotions, everydayness, grand gesture, mundane moments, senses | 8 Comments »
Since my last mission trip to Haiti, I couldn’t wait to get back. That was August 2010, just eight months after the earthquakes that shattered an already struggling nation. I’ve even made it down to the other side of the island, but my heart ached to be just across the border with the people I’ve [...]
Jan 08, 2012 | Categories: activist faith, haiti '12, headline, missions, orphan care, poverty, SERVE, the latest | Tags: blog, blogging, child sponsorship programs, earthquakes, extreme poverty, haiti, heart, mission trip, tax deductible donation, twitter | 8 Comments »
We like to read around here. AND… I’m kind of a geek for reports. I gain a great deal of understanding about what makes this place tick when I look at things like search engine keyword reports that tell me how people get here. One of the reports that I’ve looked at recently is my [...]
Jan 07, 2012 | Categories: READ, the latest | Tags: amazon affiliates, brother lawrence, christian martyr, darrell hammond, dave kraft, david platt, finding god, gregory a boyd, john fox, list, mark batterson, practice of the presence of god, presence of God, radical idea, saturday night live, uncensored truth | 4 Comments »
We gathered in the church parking lot. Everyone came bearing gifts. Everyone came to bless another in need. Everyone came because we wanted to show the kind of Love that Jesus taught would set us apart. During a time when we remember the birth of Christ and the visit of the wise men bearing gifts [...]
Jan 06, 2012 | Categories: activist faith, ministry, SERVE, the latest | Tags: #loveblitz, love blitz | 7 Comments »
It’s been an incredible year! We officially moved to a multi-blogger format. We passed over 1,000 posts and half a million published words. And we’ve experienced continued, steady growth (over 70% per year for each of the last three years). We’ve even released the first book in the BibleDude Series… The Unlikley Missionary: From Pew-Warmer [...]
Dec 26, 2011 | Categories: headline, PRAY, READ, SERVE, the latest | Tags: lists | 18 Comments »
READ 1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. [...]
Dec 24, 2011 | Categories: orphan care, poverty, PRAY, READ, SERVE, the latest | Tags: 1 john, advent series, child sponsorship, encouraging word, eternal life, H.E.L.P., happiness, help one now, Jesus, life, peace that surpasses all understanding, prayer, precious gifts, son of god, testimony | 6 Comments »