Apprentice 2 Jesus

Church Life

  • What the wilderness teaches us

    The men’s Bible study I am a part of at my church is going through the Gospel of Matthew. We’re just getting started so I was reflecting on Matthew 3 this week. John the Baptist comes along and Matthew identifies him as the one crying out in the wilderness. As we were discussing this Isaiah… Read more

  • The sign of Jonah

    In Luke 11:29 people ask for yet another sign from Jesus. Too often we are asking for a sign and don’t know what we’re asking in that request. Read more

  • The self-righteous image

    “I pastored a Southern Baptist church in southern Missouri, and there some people in that church whose whole identity, I think, was tied to a self-righteous image. I discovered quickly I couldn’t change things when folks were determined not to change. In time, though, I realized that all around the church was a sea of… Read more

  • Is it time to quit the Church?

    The past few weeks have been heavy news for the Church. For evangelicals… it’s been Willow Creek and the leadership failure of that megachurch. (Then there are those trying to cling to evangelical as “tribe” but the politics of it right now are a bad mess.) For the Catholics, it was the grand jury findings… Read more

  • Dealing with the sin of church leadership

    Between the vestibule and the altar     let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,     and make not your heritage a reproach,     a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples,     ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17, ESV) Read more

  • The refreshing presence of Jesus in the Word

    I am tired. Weary. The news… social media… all around I am confronted with how we are behaving as Americans… as Christians… I am tired. Weary. Read more

  • The power of the Church in this world

    “…the interior life of the Church is then one of selfless love so fully exercised that, within its communion, the structure of its ministries coincides exactly with that of interpersonal relationships and the whole is the visible manifestation of a community that so gives itself unselfishly in love and service that it cannot fail to… Read more

  • Oh, the places we’ve been, Pt. 2

    Further thoughts on churches we’ve visited since the first of the year… Through the first four months of this year, we’ve visited all kinds of churches. We have come away with a deeper appreciation and love for the Body of Christ and how it is expressed in so many ways.  Read more

  • The failure of the shepherds

    Kenneth Bailey in his book, The Good Shepherd, walks through several major “shepherd” passages of Scripture. He makes the case for seeing the Father and the Son as shepherds rather than vengeful judges.  Read more

  • The journey changes

    Today is my last day as pastor of Heights Church. It’s been a nearly 20 year journey in a place I have loved deeply.  Read more