Twenty Random Things I’m Thankful For in 2012
November 21, 2012I love Thanksgiving. Here are twenty random things in no certain order that I’m thankful for: 1) I’m thankful for Angela, my beautiful wife of ten years (tomorrow is my anniversary). I’m the luckiest man alive. But more on that tomorrow. 2) I’m thankful for my four children, Grace, Daniel, Emma, Lily. Each is so uniquely different and yet so precious. 3) I’m thankful for my family: parents who raised me in the Lord and have always loved me, my brother Tim, my sister Laura and how they have enriched my life. 4) I’m thankful for Billy Graham, whose ministry…
Continue ReadingShouldn’t Gratitude Should Be Our First Language?
November 20, 2012Yeah, yeah, of course we’re supposed to be thankful on Thanksgiving. But it occurs to me that we’re not very good at this. By we, I don’t mean the editorial “we” by which I’m pointing the finger at the rest of Americans for being ungrateful while I ignore my own ingratitude. By we I don’t mean the “Church” by which I think the problem is the rest of those ungrateful brothers and sisters in the Lord while I silently pretend I’m not full of unhealthy entitlement. No, I’m talking about me and my own ingratitude. And of all people, shouldn’t…
Continue ReadingThe Gospel Versus Nostalgia
November 14, 2012This summer I had the privilege of travelling to Eastern Europe to attend my brother’s wedding. His wife, Annette, is a native of Krakow, Poland. After the wedding, I continued on to Slovakia to visit missionaries we support near Bratislavia. Jason and Adele Rice and their three young boys have just got to the field and are busy learning the language and culture of Slovakia. There is something about the mindset of an overseas missionary that would be good for us American Christians to learn. It struck me that missionaries don’t go into a country and try to change the…
Continue ReadingFive Responses to President Obama’s Relection
November 7, 2012So the election is over and many evangelicals are disappointed. So now what? Here are five responses.
Continue ReadingThe Sin About Which No One Will Speak
November 5, 2012Envy is like a fly that passes all the body’s sounder parts, and dwells upon the sores. – Arthur Chapman There is a sin that nobody in our world really wants to discuss. It’s the fashionable sin, that fuels our great social movements and has become an engine of our politics. It’s the sin of envy. We love to talk about greed. I mean if you google the word, “greed” you’ll get a thousands sermons, news articles, political speeches, blog posts, etc. We assume that anyone who is wealthy is greedy, simply because we attach greed to success as if…
Continue ReadingThe Surprising Fruit of Balance
November 2, 2012It would be hard to find a more boring word in ministry circles than “balance.” There is a lot of talk about being “radical”, “edgy”, “relevant”, etc. But balance sounds rather unhip. But I’m finding this word may be the key to lifelong, steady, sustained ministry success. There is a part of all of us in ministry that desperately wants to be noticed. And our American culture seems to celebrate such unbridled ambition. We want to be though of as being successful, even if we cover it with a nice Jesus gloss and call it impact. And so pastors are on Twitter…
Continue Reading5 Things Leaders Can Learn From the Presidential Debates
October 30, 2012So the Presidential debates are about a week behind us. This election is heading toward it’s conclusion (Thankfully). Unlike previous election years, the debates have had a dramatic effect on the race. Personally, I have found them fascinating and interesting. And I wonder if Christian leaders can draw some lessons from these debates as we lead God’s people. Here are five things that were obvious to me: 1) Leadership invites incredible scrutiny. Regardless of your political persuasion, you have to give both President Obama and Governor Romney credit for stepping forward and offering to serve America in the highest office in…
Continue ReadingWhy I’m Voting, Who I’m Voting For, and Why
October 26, 2012We’re heading down the homestretch of this election. There are a lot of questions for American Christians. Should we vote? Who should we vote for? Should we place so much trust in a political party? We’ve seen both candidates endure months of grueling campaigning, be ridiculed about gaffes, and we’ve read enough tweets and Facebook posts to fill a book (a really lame book, at that). I’d like to share with you where I’m at. I’m only one person and I’m not the first or last word on this subject. But I’d like to share just why I’m voting, who…
Continue ReadingWhen We Add Stuff to the Bible, We Hurt People
October 24, 2012Orthodox evangelicals believe in something called a “closed cannon.” In other words, we believe the Bible as it is presently constructed-39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament-are the complete, written, inspired, inerrant Word of God. This matters for lots of reasons, but two big ones: a) we have all we need for faith and practice (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16) and b) there is no new revelation, no new Scripture. The latter point takes seriously Revelation 22:19 in that we feel it dishonors the Word to add to it. In practice, most conservative…
Continue ReadingHow You Can Best Help Your Church
October 17, 2012If you’re a Christian, whether you realize it or not, you are called, by God, to be on mission in the world. This is the essence of the gospel call, that you were not simply saved from death but also saved for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10). That purpose is to make disciples (Matthew 28:16-20). And the way God has called you to make disciples is through the local church, His expression of His body in your community. So how do you help your disciple-making, evangelistic, Bible-preaching church with its mission? You might think I’m going to say something really cool like: “go to another…
Continue ReadingWhy You Should Tithe To Your Church
October 9, 2012One of the hardest message a pastor is tasked with giving is the message on giving. I don’t like talking about giving at our church. I don’t like urging people to give. But giving is clearly a concept that runs through the Scriptures. And if we don’t talk about, we miss an opportunity to learn and discover the joy it brings. And I’m not simply talking about giving of time or giving to worthy charities (which you should do). I’m talking about giving consistently, faithfully, cheerfully to your local church. I’m talking about the word we hate to use: tithe.…
Continue Reading3 Reasons Your Pastor Probably Doesn’t Preach Politics
October 2, 2012I’ve written on this issue before, but it’s probably worth revisiting in an election season. And new research has been released by Lifeway that affirms what I’ve always believed: generally Bible-believing pastors shy away from overt political endorsements and preaching politics in the pulpit. I wrote a piece for Relevant not long ago on this subject in which I said this: [To preach] is a humble and holy task because the people who attend churches arrive with the assumption that what is said comes from the Bible. To cut and paste partisan talking-points or to substitute consistent exegesis with sample “election season”…
Continue ReadingLes Lofquist on Leadership and Preaching
September 27, 2012I especially loved this piece by Les Lofquist on how to respond to a criticism of preaching: I think the only way is to be determined to be prayed up and studied up the next time you’re in the pulpit. Resolve to get up early each day the next week and pray as a man of God should. Then study seriously. Grapple with next Sunday’s text. Turn off the television. Stop surfing the web. Put away your fantasy team rosters. Dig into the Bible. Pull off from your shelves those theology books and commentaries of yours and pore over them.…
Continue ReadingChocolate Faith
September 26, 2012Within the church of the living God, we must become excited about the gospel. That’s how we pass on our heritage – D.A. Carson If you want to impress the woman you love and happening to be traveling through the northwest suburbs of Chicago, my advice to you is to spend a significant amount of time in the quaint village of Long Grove and its famous Confectionary. This niche candy shop is a must-stop for those who live and visit the Midwest. I know because my wife considers chocolate as important as oxygen and I consider my wife as important…
Continue ReadingThree Dangers of Simplistic Evangelistic Methods
September 25, 2012If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, undoubtedly you’ve been exposed to one or more “proven” methods of sharing your faith. In my lifetime I’ve been exposed to a few of these. They have been helpful in narrowing down the message, helping me get more comfortable sharing the gospel, and summarizing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But there is a danger in relying too heavily evangelistic methods or tools. Here are three that concern me: 1) We send the message to ourselves and our hearers that the gospel is simplistic. The truth is that the gospel…
Continue ReadingIf we are all priests, then this is our calling:
September 23, 2012Martin Luther, in his commentary on 1 Peter 2, writes this about the implication Peter’s declaration that all believers are priests: A priest must be God’s messenger and must have a command from God to proclaim His Word. You must, says Peter, exercise the chief function of a priest, that is, to proclaim the wonderful deed God has performed for you to bring you out of darkness into the light. And your preaching should be done in such a way that one brother proclaims the mighty deed of God to the other, how you have been delivered through Him from…
Continue ReadingGod’s Adjustment Bureau
September 19, 2012Several years ago, I sat with a trusted counselor, seeking wisdom on how best to counsel a friend crushed under the weight of his upbringing in an abusive home. With tears, I poured out my frustrations at my friend’s parents, whose hypocrisy and heavy-handedness had warped the soul of their son. The counselor’s response reset my thinking and adjusted my theology. The counselor told me, “Dan, his parents caused grave spiritual and mental anguish. And yet you must know that God is not in Heaven today questioning Himself for placing this boy in that home.” Those were not words I…
Continue ReadingWhat Pastoring Taught Me About Spiritual Growth
September 18, 2012As a lifelong Christian, I’ve always known the importance of spiritual growth. But when I became a pastor, suddenly my ideas about this were bigger than simply what was going on in my life. As an undershepherd of God’s people, now the spiritual growth of other people is my concern. You could argue that this should have been my concern all along, since every follower of Jesus is tasked with discipleship. But as a pastor, this is a primary job description. What surprised me is how much I learned about what growth actually looks like. Here are five ways in…
Continue ReadingIs there something wrong with our love?
September 11, 2012I’ve been preaching through the book of 1 Peter for our Exiles series at church on Sunday mornings. It’s a powerful book. Just this Sunday I preached on 1 Peter 1:22-25 where Peter calls the church to a deep kind of love. What struck me most about this chapter is a simple, seemingly throwaway line, in the middle of verse 22. Peter says simply that the object of our love is to be “the brethren.” In other words, the gospel in us, the new life of Christ, should make us burst with love for fellow Christians. And this is not…
Continue ReadingYour Jehoida Moment
September 6, 2012Few have entered the world with such a dramatic story as Joash. Born in the midst of a bloody revolution in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Joash barely escaped the edge of the sword wielded by his Grandmother, Athalia. Athalia was a ruthless monarch, who clawed her way to the throne after her husband’s death by murdering nearly every male heir.. But her royal and bloody ambitions conflicted with God’s promise to preserve the bloodline of King David. Unbeknownst to Queen Athalia, a courageous woman, Jehosheba and her husband, the priest Jehoiada, hide baby Joash, the last remaining heir, in…
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