The Grace of Radical Ordinariness
May 22, 2013There has been much discussion in the evangelical world about the call to radical discipleship. Perhaps it began with Matthew Lee Anderson’s corrective to books by men like David Platt, Francis Chan, and others. I thought Matt’s piece was very helpful. On other hand, I have also been encouraged by the books and movements Anderson sought to correct. David Platt and Francis Chan and others are right in pushing the American church from it’s lethargy, of echoing Jesus call to radical discipleship. Where the conversation, I think, is unhelpful is when it devolved into a sort of mockery of some…
Continue ReadingMy Prayer Before the Illinois General Assembly
May 21, 2013I had the honor of delivering the convocation on Monday afternoon before the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield. I was graciously invited by the state representative whose district includes Gages Lake, Rep. Sam Yingling. I brought my eight-year old daughter, Grace. We are kindly hosted down in Springfield by my friends, Dan and Linda Anderson and their seven children. Dan is the director of Brazil Gospel Fellowship Mission. I also had a terrific time of fellowship with Shaun Lewis, who ministers with Capitol Commission Shaun reaches out to the representatives, senators, supreme court justices, and staffers with Bible studies, prayer and…
Continue ReadingGod’s Purpose and Mental Illness
May 17, 2013Today, for my weekly Leadership Journal Interview, I had the chance to talk with Amy Simpson, author of the new book, Troubled Minds. I asked her about some of the misconceptions we have about mental illness. Among her answers was this very hopeful one: Many people also mistakenly believe that people with mental illness are doomed to live wasted and unproductive lives—that they can’t contribute to the life of the church. We have this sense of spiritual hopelessness about mental illness that we don’t have about other treatable conditions, even when they’re very serious. But God has a purpose for everyone.…
Continue ReadingWhy Going to Church on Sunday is An Act of War
May 15, 2013Okay, so maybe that title is a bit melodramatic. But I wanted to get your attention, because I think faithful, weekly attendance at your local gospel-preaching church is important. It’s important for all the reasons we know, right? To hear the Word preached. To develop community in the body of Christ. To exercise your spiritual gifts. To support the gospel proclamation both local and international. To obey the Scriptures. Yes to all of these reasons for going to church. And also yes to the well-worn clique, “You can go to church every week for your whole life and still be far from the Kingdom…
Continue ReadingWhy Your Spiritual Growth Matters to the Community
May 14, 2013Last week I preached a Mother’s Day message from 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9. Paul compares discipleship to the actual practice of a mother nursing her child. In this, the mother is a source of life for her child. So it is that we as Christians, must be conduits of life-giving spiritual nutrition for those around us. This has a lot of implications for the way we live. First, it matters what we ourselves are eating. A mother who is breast-feeding has to be very, very careful about her diet because what she consumes will then make up the milk for her…
Continue ReadingA Prayer for Moms on Mother’s Day
May 11, 2013I wrote this prayer for the mothers in our church. I thought I would share it with you as you celebrate the moms in your life: A Mother’s Day Prayer Dear Father, we approach your throne on behalf of the mothers whom you have entrusted with the care of your most precious little ones. We thank you for creating each mom with a unique combination of gifts and talents. We thank you for the sacrifice of self each mom gives for her children. For the late nights spent rocking a colicky infant. For the hands calloused from washing, wiping, scrubbing,…
Continue ReadingLoving Someone With Whom You Disagree
May 10, 2013Today in my Friday Five interview for Leadership Journal, I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Russell Moore, the newly elected head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. I’ve long admired Dr. Moore for his clear, biblical teaching and his winsome perspective on the Scripture and politics. One of the questions I asked him was about his relationship with the President. You might not expect a friendship between a liberal Democrat and a conservative evangelical, but this is what Dr. Moore said. I think his response gives Christians a good model for how to…
Continue ReadingRaising Little Pharisees
May 8, 2013Prior to moving to our existing neighborhood, we lived in a small townhouse about 20 miles west. We lived there for 8 years and had great relationships with our neighbors. There was something about the physical closeness of our homes that fostered a closeness among the neighbors. I had thought that neighborliness was a dead art until I moved here. We enjoyed some rich, deep, wonderful relationships with a very diverse group of neighbors. We raised our kids together, borrowed each other’s baking goods, and experienced tragedy together. So when we moved it was bittersweet. We had to leave people we had…
Continue ReadingThe Key To Successful Blogging
May 3, 2013It’s no secret that popular blogger, Rachel Held Evans and I disagree on a number of theological issues. But I consider Rachel a friend and was privileged to interview her for today’s Friday Five with Leadership Journal. One of the questions I asked her was the secret to her blogging success. She said this: I’ve been blogging for nearly five years, and in that time, have seen slow, steady growth from one or two readers a day (namely, my mom and someone searching for another Rachel Evans), to several thousand readers a day. I credit this growth to two things:…
Continue ReadingHow Should Christians React to Hate?
May 1, 2013It’s no secret that the biblical sexual ethic, a beautiful monogamous relationship reserved for marriage between a man and a woman, has swiftly fallen out of favor in our culture. The recent declaration by Jason Collins, a veteran NBA center, has exposed the deep rifts in our society on the issue of homosexuality. While most of the world celebrated Collin’s courage, ESPN NBA reporter, Chris Broussard, a committed evangelical Christian, had his own courage to say, into a stiff wind of opposition, that Collin’s lifestyle choices conflict with the Christian faith. Nothing in this story should surprise us. Society has…
Continue ReadingHow to Build Community in Your Church
April 30, 2013As a pastor of a small church, I’m particularly sensitive about building a sense of community. I don’t think community is just another 21st century buzzword, I think it reflects the body life described for the church in the New Testament. For example, in our latest study of the Lord’s Prayer, I’ve been struck by Jesus intructions for how to pray. You will notice the use of the plural. “Our Father”, “Give us our daily bread”, “Forgive us our debts.” This pattern is all through the gospels, the epistles, the pastoral letters–commands and encouragements given in the plural. The point is this: Christianity was not…
Continue ReadingA Commitment to Holiness and Humility
April 26, 2013I had the privilege of interviewing Rev. Samuel Rodriquez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. Rodriquez is a well-known speaker who represents the growing Hispanic evangelical population. I asked him about a recent honor he received: You were the first Latino leader to give a commemorative address at Dr. Martin Luther King’s annual commemorative event. Was that opportunity a dream come true? Beyond a dream come true, the opportunity graciously rendered serves as a testimony to the purpose and promise of God for each of our lives. When I was 14 years of age, I saw a television…
Continue Reading7 Steps to Get Started Writing
April 24, 2013I have a lot of people who are interested in launching a writing career, but don’t know how to get started. It seems a bit overwhelming. So I decided to try and write a post with seven sort of first-steps on writing. I hope this helps those who feel this call. 1) Take a Long View. This is less of a practical step and more of a vision thing. But I think it’s importnat to not get too caught up, right away, in that big book project or thinking that you’re going to make a ton of money so you can…
Continue ReadingThe Rhythm of Forgiveness and Repentance
April 23, 2013This past Sunday, in our sermon series Teach us to Pray, we looked at this phrase in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Now this phrase of this prayer would be really wonderful if it stopped at “Forgive us our debts.” That’s how most of us pray, if we’re honest. The Bible tells us we enter life with a debt–a massive gap between us and God (Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12, among others). Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection erased paid that debt and offers reconciliation with God. Anyone who has put their faith…
Continue ReadingThe Political Idol
April 19, 2013Okay, I had a terrific interview with cultural commentator and author, Eric Metaxas about a wide-range of things including civic engagement, the role of the Church in culture, evangelical subcultures, and the controversial White House Prayer Breakfast. It was brought to my attention that the section of the interview I had previously highlighted might have been controversial in the sense that it didn’t give the full context of Eric’s remarks and given the impression that I agree with the idea that Christians generally create “subpart art.” Alas, that’s not my intention at all. So rather than stoke a controversy, I…
Continue ReadingHow NOT to grow spiritually
April 17, 2013How does a person grow? Specifically, for followers of Jesus, how does a person grow spiritually? Another word for growth is sanctification–that supernatural process by which the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and forms us into Christ’s image. Growth is primarily a work that God does in us–I can’t, essentially, make myself grow. And yet you can’t escape the New Testament’s overwhelming pulse that God commands us to intentionally pursue Him, that growth is, in some ways, our job as Christians. There are quite a few texts that illuminate this, but 1 Timothy 4:7 comes to mind. Paul…
Continue Reading5 Ways Adult Children Can Honor Their Parents
April 10, 2013How should an adult grown (presumably married, but not necessarily) child relate to his or her parents? There is a tension in Scripture between obeying the Scripture which says to “leave and cleave” in forming your own adult identity and family (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5) and obeying the Scripture which says to “honor your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2). Every family has it’s own rhythm. Every family has its own share of circumstances, from abusive to permissive to annoying, etc. So how one adult child handles his or her parents isn’t necessarily a blueprint for another. Still, the…
Continue ReadingMy 5 Rules of Writing
April 9, 2013I’ve been working with words, in one way or another, since I was in high-school and it has been work with words that has formed the majority of my adult working life, both as a writer, editor and now in my role as a pastor. Writing is one of my loves and one of the few things I think I can do reasonably well, though I’m a long, long way from good. Lots of people ask me what my “method” is for writing. I haven’t given much thought about it, but perhaps it’s worth a blog post. So here are…
Continue ReadingOut of Ur: Friday Five Interview: D.A. Carson
April 5, 2013My first Friday Five interview for Leadership Journal posts today. First up? Bible scholar and author, DA Carson: You recently released a book, Jesus, the Son of God. Why the emphasis on son-ship for pastors and theologians today? The title “the Son of God” is one that is repeatedly applied to the Lord Jesus, so there is a perennial responsibility to understand it. There are two factors that make this responsibility more urgent at the present time. First, sometimes the world of biblical interpretation and the world of systematic theology do not mesh very well. In this instance, how do we…
Continue ReadingChristians and Online Engagement: Some Great Links
April 3, 2013How should Christians engage online? What should inform the words we use the debates we engage? I’ve been studying this question for a particular project (more on that whenever there is more on that). In my study, I’ve come across some terrific articles. I thought I’d pass them along: “An Open Letter to My Politically Outspoken Facebook Friend” – Jeremy Writebol at Gospel Centered Discipleship “Consider Yourself” – Burk Parsons at Ligonier “Honoring Christ Online” an interview with Tim Challies “Why Christians are Jerks Online” – Jon Acuff at CNN.com “Defined by Who We Aren’t” – Barnabas Piper at World…
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