Because prayer is the chief occupation of the Father’s house, tearing down our expectations of God’s response is the enemy’s full-time job. When we do not have faith in God’s desire to respond to our prayers, we rob those prayers of their power. Sound negative? I thought so too, so I want to turn it […]

Church is a team sport. Some things just don’t work well solo. We have some friends whose son recently finished high school and the next week joined the Marines. It was a pretty abrupt transition. There’s a discipline in the military you don’t pick up much in English class. Or even Algebra. Some of it […]

Or to any church, for that matter. The answer may surprise you. Because it keeps changing. And of course it’s different for different people. And it’s different for the same people at different seasons in their lives. We’d like to believe that people come to our church because they trust they can find truth there. […]

I just can’t get over the grace that I’m under. It’s winter as I write this… December to be exact. And that of course means Christmas. If it wasn’t for Christmas, December would hardly be worth keeping in the calendar. I grew up in the chilly northwest, lived in Michigan, pastored in Alaska. All of […]

It is my settled conviction that one of the most flagrant ways God’s people can insult Him is to make the stuff of the gospel boring. You’ve sat through church services like that and so have I. The content of the message is heavy, just barely relevant. You’re thinking the clock on the back wall […]

Chances are you’ve likely been to Yellowstone National Park. If so, I think you’ll agree with me that it’s one of the most fascinating places in America, covering more than 3,500 square miles. A couple of decades ago scientists began to notice that the ecosystem of the park was changing. They sensed that the park […]

When I was a young pastor Kodak was nearly as common in the world as water. It was everywhere. For over four decades the Kodak display was the dominant feature in the New York’s Grand Central Station. The six huge color panels, 20 by 60 feet each, illustrated the fact that Kodak was the dominant […]

Have you heard about an organization of churches called COR? The acronym stands for Churches of Refuge and there are nine characteristics which a congregation must meet in order to belong. One of them I found of special interest was that the church “must commit to accepting people just as Jesus did.” Well, that’s easy, […]

I have a friend named Marc and he’s near the top of my list of heroes. Here’s why: He carries two extremely demanding assignments. I know how demanding they are because I’ve done both, but he is doing both at the same time. First, he is administrative head over nearly 150 local congregations in a […]

I was standing on the corner one day last week waiting for my wife (which seldom happens), when an older lady walked by carrying a fishing pole complete with reel, line, and weights. She wasn’t carrying any fish, but it was obvious she was serious about fishing. Just on a whim I spoke to her, […]