Wont You Be My Neighbor?

Wont You Be My Neighbor?

As you consider your calling to your neighbors this summer, think about this one short phrase, “Be a front yard neighbor." Create encounters by intentionally moving part of your life to the front yard. Take a walk and meet people as you go, buy a front yard tree swing for the neighbor kids to play on, or bring the grill to the street and invite a few neighbors to join you. Bring your Life Group members along for the mission as well because community is a powerful evangelistic tool.

Read More

Community in Christ

Community in Christ

I recently read a New York Times article by Nicholas Kristoff called Let’s Wage War on Loneliness in which Kristoff describes the lonely state of Western culture. Kristoff asserts that 20% of adults in the U.S. report being chronically lonely and 50% of adults in the U.S. live alone. And this was pre-Covid19. Given the current pandemic, I can only imagine what those numbers and needs are like now.

Read More

Acquiring a Taste for God

Acquiring a Taste for God

When Jesus begins his ministry on earth, he does not go to a posh retreat center, or a pastor’s conference. He goes to the desert. He goes to a dry and weary land where there is no water or food. Now as the eternal Son of God, he is able to create food out of nothing, and as a fully flesh and blood human being, he desperately wants to eat. Satan is quick to point this out, “Hey man, you’re the Son of God! You are surrounded by stuff you could turn into bread. Why not just transubstantiate yourself up some waffles?” Jesus’s answer to Satan gives us the meaning of fasting: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” Jesus’s soul was satisfied by the Father. Jesus prepares himself for ministry by honing that desire...

Read More

Personal Impact of Ephesians Series

Personal Impact of Ephesians Series

Our community recently wrapped up 41 weeks in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. I enjoyed teaching through the letter and hope you were built up from hearing it preached as much as I was built up by preaching it. It was a rich study for me personally. Ephesians has always been one of my favorite books in all the Bible and preaching through it only increased my delight in it. I don’t want us to close the letter and move on to the next series without reflecting a bit on all that we have walked through.  Here are eight truths that encouraged, challenged and strengthened me in my study that I hope you will hold on to...

Read More

Souls that Rest in the Love of God

Souls that Rest in the Love of God

Many of us are weary in our communion with God because we’ve passed over this essential foundation to our communion. Our faith is on a 24/7 mission to find rest for our souls, and many of us are restless because we struggle to simply see him as loving. Again, Owen rightly notes, “every discovery of God without this will but make the soul fly from him.” Why? Why will every other discovery of God result in us flying from him if we don’t see and receive his love for us? Because if his sovereignty and authority were at work against us and not for us through his love, we would all fly and hide from him. We would buckle under the weight of living to gain his approval versus living life as approved sons and daughters...

Read More

Self-Promotion and Our Fear of Obscurity

Self-Promotion and Our Fear of Obscurity

It can be easy to forget that we pastors are not salesmen. We're not pushing a product called “the gospel.” We can’t develop an elevator pitch clever and concise enough to secure the sale. The oddity comes when we do create products that we then market and push — for worship pastors, our albums, and preaching pastors, our books. In that moment, we inch our way to becoming salespeople. And if we’re going to be good salespeople, then we need a marketing strategy and a platform, lots of followers, etc...

Read More