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Prepare Your Hermit’s Heart
Those are the words given to me by a leader at Pacem in Terris, a prayer hermitage center where I will be taking a silent retreat next month. I was on my cell phone walking to my van at the time and I almost burst into tears hearing those refreshing words. The wonderful people who run this prayer center have…
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Why Mono-Generational Churches Are a BAD Idea
I hope I made that word up so I can copyright it! 😉 Mono-Generational Churches are the new wave in American culture. It’s the 20-something church or the 60-something church. It’s niche marketing run amok. We niche our ministry to fill a particular need and it draws people of like-minded ideas. 1. I find that simply boring. 2. I find…
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Resurrection!
This year’s journey through Lent has been amazing. Personally, I have worked harder than any other year to purposefully observe this season. It’s been uneven at times, but I have worked to observe the readings, pause in prayer, and reflect. On Saturday I went through some Easter Vigil readings that really heightened my anticipation of Resurrection Sunday. Then, I began…
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Saturday — In the Tomb
I am trying to imagine the level of hopelessness in the disciples on this particular day. One of the Psalms for today’s reading is Psalm 88: 1 LORD, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. 2 May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. 3 I am overwhelmed…
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Though the Darkness Hide Thee…
Thank you for the cross, Lord
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Video Preaching
Being a part of a movement that is now hawking multi-site churches, I am treading in very dangerous waters. I offer these words from Tim Keller’s blog as he interacts with another great preacher of a past era: Dr. Lloyd-Jones effectively dismantles the idea that watching a video or listening to an audio of a sermon is as good as…
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Holy Week — The Hour
John’s gospel doesn’t give us any doubt as to who Jesus was in his ministry. Jesus had no doubt. There is an assurance all the way through the story that he is fully aware of what the Father is doing. From the first sign it was clear Jesus had a grasp of what was going on. His mother asked him…
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The Kindness of Strangers
Yesterday was a particularly hectic day. I am president of a local community organization and we had our noon meeting. When I was leaving, I ran into some great friends who live in the city and we talked about life, the schools, great things that are going on… it was a lot of fun. Inadvertently, one of the folks from…
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Living in Risk
I was reading through Matthew 25 and came to the parable of the talents. In the margin of my Bible I had this note written: “You can bury your talent or you can go for broke. Take the risk. Not living in risk is being unfaithful.”
