On Writing: “Strap Yourself to a Desk and Grind.”
August 20, 2013I enjoy good sportswriters, mainly because I absolutely love sports, but also because I think sportswriting is among the best writing on the planet. Guys like Thomas Lake at SI, Bill Simmons, Rick Reilly, Gene Wojciechowski and the Grantland guys at ESPN, Jason Whitlock at Fox Sports, David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune–these guys are among my favorites and there are many more I read. Sportswriters have to write quickly, on deadline, and have to write in a very tight fashion. They write for a very critical crowd: passionate sports fans. They have to be serious and funny and creative all…
Continue ReadingPeople Are Hungry for Substance
August 16, 2013Today I interview Stephen Miller for Leadership Journal. Stephen is a singer/songwriter and the worship pastor for The Journey Church in St. Louis. I’ve enjoyed Stephen’s music and his leadership in the Christian music world. His latest book is somewhat provocative: Worship Leaders, We Are Not Rock Stars. You’re part of a growing movement writing hymns for the church and recapturing old hymns. How do you explain this new popularity? People are hungry for substance. There is a reason so many of the old hymns have stood the test of time and we still have them today. For the most part, hymn…
Continue ReadingGuest Post: Real Reconciliation
August 13, 2013Today I’m honored to feature a guest-post by Renee Johnson Fisher, author and speaker. Renee runs the very popular webzine, Devotional Diva and is the founder and host of The Quarter Life Conference. Her latest book is Forgiving Others, Forgiving Me. If forgiveness wasn’t difficult enough, then comes the hard part! Reconciliation. The problem is most people don’t know the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. The Bible says we must forgive (Matthew 6:14-15) so that we can be forgiven, but what it doesn’t say is that you must also reconcile. Because, let’s be honest, sometimes reconciliation is not possible. Maybe you have forgiven…
Continue Reading5 Things I Learned in Canada Last Week
August 13, 2013So last week my wife and I came back from a week of preaching and teaching and fellowship on Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. I was honored to be one of the speakers at The Gospel Coalition, Atlantic Canada. We had an absolutely lovely time up there and I wanted to share with you about some of our experiences: 1) It’s an honor to be invited to share God’s Word with any audience. I hope this feeling never wears off, but every time I’m asked to preach somewhere, I feel a tremendous privilege. To hold in our hands the very…
Continue ReadingRelationships of Worship and Delight
August 9, 2013This week I had the privilege of interviewing Gary Thomas, the author of several books, including, Sacred Marriage, Sacred Parenting, and others. My wife and I have been personally blessed by Gary’s work and we have used them in our ministry. I asked Gary about communicating a biblical model of marriage in a culture that has largely rejected it: How can church leaders communicate that model of marriage in a winsome way? First, of course, we need to “communicate it” through our lives. The consequences of pastoral failure in marriage can be severe; I’ve seen entire youth groups turn away from or…
Continue ReadingGuest Post: 5 Ways to Minister to Someone With Dementia
August 8, 2013All this week I’m preaching at TGC Atlantic Canada, so I’m featuring some guest posts. Today is Dave Jenkins. Dave is a Christian, husband to Sarah, freelance writer, avid golfer, and the Director of Servants of Grace Ministries. You can follow him on twitter @DaveJJenkins or read more of his work at http://servantsofgrace.org Since graduating seminary in May 2012 with my Mdiv, a lot has happened in my life. At the top of that list is the return of my father into my life after a long absence. I discovered that Dad has frontal temporal dementia, which is leading to…
Continue ReadingHealing Generational Divides
August 7, 2013There is so much conversation lately about Millennials and the Church. Seems every blogger has addressed this subject from one angle or another. After reading the blogs and counter-blogs, it seems to me that the crux of the matter involves two things: a) a vast exaggeration of what generations think of each other, as if everyone born in a certain time period automatically approaches their faith the same way and b) the inability or unwillingness of various people groups, generations, to listen to each other well. The former has been addressed at length already. But I’m not sure the latter…
Continue ReadingTGC Atlantic Canada
August 5, 2013So this week, Angela and I are off to beautiful (so I hear) Prince Edward Island, Canada. We were graciously invited by the Gospel Coalition, Atlantic Canada. I’m preaching two times, conducting a workshop, and participating in some panels (schedule here). We are looking forward to some gospel fellowship with brothers and sisters in the Lord. And maybe we’ll get in some sight-seeing as well. My wife is interested in touring some of the Anne of Green Gables sights. Ok, I’ll admit that, as an avid watcher of Anne (mancard = gone) in my youth, I’m curious about the sights…
Continue ReadingPeople Want a Church to Be a Church
August 2, 2013This week I had a chance to interview Brett McCracken. Brett teaches at Biola and is a keen cultural observer. I’ve always enjoyed his work. He has written two books. The first, Hipster Christianity created quite a splash when it came out. He pushed back against the attempt by the Church to be “cool.” Recently Brett wrote a terrific piece on Millenials for The Washington Post. Now Brett has a new book out, Gray Matters, where he dives into delicate territory. How does the church handle the “gray areas” of life that are not specifically spelled out in Scripture and how does the Church…
Continue ReadingWe Are All Judgmental
July 31, 2013Last week the Internet exploded with news of two people whose actions (rightly) produced moral outrage, regardless of where you are on the political/religious spectrum. Anthony Weiner, already thin on public trust after his ridiculous Twitter exploits which caused him to resign his New York Congressional seat, was caught continuing that ridiculous behavior well after he claimed he was sorry, etc. To top it off, he’s sticking to his candidacy for Mayor of New York. It was the same week that Milwaukee Brewers baseball star and 2011 MVP, Ryan Braun admitted, after months of passionate denials, that he indeed broke…
Continue ReadingFruit from Deep Brokenness
July 26, 2013For my weekly Leadership Journal interview, I chat with Mary Demuth, a good friend. She’s a gifted author and speaker. Mary has a way of speaking from her own personal pain and brokenness into the lives of others in a unique way. I asked her about this: Your own story of sexual abuse has been catalyst for some of your writing and blogging. How hard was it to begin telling your story? Initially, I shared my story in my late teens to garner attention, so, oddly, I wasn’t scared. In my twenties I naively assumed I’d been healed, so I…
Continue ReadingHow Small Churches Can Love Their Communities
July 24, 2013Today I’m over at Trevin Wax’ blog with a guest post. The subject is how to love your community if you are a small church: What if you are the pastor of a small church but would like to do something to serve your community? What if you love the idea of adopting a school, but barely have enough resources to cover your nursery on Sunday? Is it possible to do acts of mercy in your local Jerusalem with a tiny band of volunteers? Surprisingly, it is. Here are six tips for small church outreach: 1. Relieve yourself of false guilt.…
Continue ReadingFive Ways We Do Family Worship
July 24, 2013I’m a big believer in family worship. I believe God has clearly called parents to intentionally teach their children the ways of God. But for some, the idea of family worship is a bit scary. Either they don’t know how to do it or they think it means three hours every night of exegetical study through Leviticus. But family worship doesn’t have to be scary or boring or a drudgery. It can be simple. Here are five ways we do it: 1) Around the Table. Sometimes we do it at dinner, other times we do it at breakfast (especially if…
Continue ReadingRelationships and the Great Commission
July 23, 2013This Sunday I preached from Romans 10, where Paul reminds us that we are the instruments God sovereignly uses to deliver the gospel news to the world. “How will they hear without a preacher” is motivation for every follower of Jesus to be that preacher. It doesn’t necessarily mean only pastors and missionaries do the preaching, but all Christians should in some sense, preach the word to the lost. We should do this winsomely, lovingly, and intentionally. This passage convicts me in a lot of ways. For starters, it presupposes that I actually care about those who don’t know Jesus.…
Continue ReadingOut of Ur: Friday Five: Matthew Lee Anderson
July 19, 2013Today, for Leadership Journal, I interview my friend Matthew Lee Anderson. Matt is a gifted thinker and writer. He runs the influential blog, Mere Orthodoxy. His first book, Earthen Vessels offered a terrific theology of the body and his latest work, The End of our Exploring is a look at how we ask questions. It was this book that I wanted to discuss with him. Seems today that young evangelicals are fond of “asking questions.” I’m a big question asker myself. And yet, Matt says we must recognize that even our questions can be tainted by the Fall. Modern evangelicals, largely, seem to…
Continue ReadingThe Limits of Outrage and the Need for Joy
July 17, 2013Yesterday I read this blog post by conservative political columnist and radio host, Erick Erickson. I have mixed feelings about Erick. Even though I find that I agree with many of his political views, I find his tone and style of politics is not my particular style. Still, he’s a gifted writer and this time he shared something I think Christians need to hear. His point is that while he cares about politics and advocates for his point of view, outrage is not all there is to life. Erickson writes: I’m sorry, but I can’t live my life constantly fixated…
Continue ReadingActivist Faith-Interviews and Blogs
July 16, 2013Yesterday my book (cowritten with Dillon Burroughs and Dan King), Activist Faith released from Navpress. I wanted to share some of the conversations around this book from the web: I wrote a guest post for Micah Fries, on the subject of crisis pregnancy centers: While we are waiting and praying for Roe versus Wade to be overturned, there are opportunities to snatch babies from the precipice of death—in our own neighborhoods, one life at a time. And we have an opportunity to apply the grace of the gospel to young unwed mothers, helping them care for their children well after they…
Continue ReadingLive What You Are Trying to Lead
July 12, 2013Today for Leadership Journal I had the privilege of speaking with Bryan Loritts, lead pastor of Fellowship Memphis and the son of Crawford Loritts, the popular author and pastor. Bryan has written extensively and spoken on racial reconciliation in the church and pastors a congregation in one of the most racially tense areas of the country. One question I asked him was this: How can pastors and church leaders, of any race, promote racial reconciliation in their churches? First, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. When Paul writes Ephesians chapter 2, before he gets to our horizontal reconciliation in verse…
Continue ReadingActivist Faith Releases Next Week
July 10, 2013It’s hard to believe, but that moment the every author dreams of is here. My fifth book, Activist Faith, is releasing next week with Navpress. This is unique of all my books for several reasons, not the least is that its my first collaboration. I cowrote Activist Faith with my two friends, Dan King and Dillon Burroughs. Dan is a gifted writer, blogger, activist. Dillon is a multi-published author, speaker, and professor. The idea behind this book is simple: let’s take twelve hot-button issues in the culture and a) explore why Christians should engage them and b) offer ways that…
Continue ReadingBetween Eden and Heaven
July 9, 2013When I get to do leisure reading–reading that isn’t for ministry or school–I usually choose biographies. While I love to read about a wide variety of people, my favorite are American Presidents. I just got back from vacation where I consumed the very interesting book, Ike and Dick, a recent work focusing on the relationship between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. I know. It’s an obsession without a cure. I’m a nerd this way. But indulge me for a moment and let me tell you what energizes me about reading presidential biographies. Reading history reinforces to me the grand…
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