What does the Bible say about insecurity? Failure, Insecurity as a Striving Pastor & Finding My Soul in Jesus Much of my 10 years as a church planter have been riddled with anxiety, performance and self-striving. When I started out in 2005, I envisioned leading thousands of people to Jesus…for Jesus’ glory of course. The […]
Why Churches Should Not Publicly Observe Mother’s Day
At church growing up, they would always have all moms stand up and then ushers would walk around and give each mom a carnation. While I understand the heart behind this, there are several significant reasons this and other Mother’s Day observations / celebrations should not be done in church: 1. Many women have had […]
Pay-what-you-can Professional Graphic Design for Churches & Non-Profits
Zane Ogle has done my graphic design for many years. I normally don’t do “commercials” for people, but I want to do this blog post as a way of saying thank you to Zane for all the great design work he has done for me over the years. I know it will also be a […]
Faith’s Grand Paradox About Your Doubts: Love Trumps Information
Ken Wytsma’s most recent book The Grand Paradox, addresses many of the tensions believers and non-believers feel toward the Christian faith. Ken is founder of The Justice Conference coming up June 5-6 in Chicago and is also the author of Pursuing Justice. Tensions within the Bible and Christianity abound. Many of these tensions push people […]
5 Ways to Tell if Your Sports Fandom Needs to be Checked
So to start out, this is a hilarious video. If this describes you, or a loved one, it’s likely you should continue reading… This post has a tongue-in-cheek element to it, but as a recovering sports nut myself, it’s also meant to be taken seriously. Too often we can rationalize sinful or idolatrous behavior “because […]
WKAR Current State Interview on Church in a Bar & Multiracial Church
I was interviewed today by Mark Bashore on WKAR’s Current State radio program. WKAR is Lansing’s NPR station. The interview covered doing church in a bar and purchasing alcohol for people, as well as our church’s mission to become a multiracial church and do racial reconciliation as a primary part of our mission: