The World’s First Prayer Meeting – iFaith
March 8, 2011When I was writing iFaith, I came across one of the most interesting passages in the Bible. It’s almost a throwaway line at the end of Genesis 4. It describes the birth of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son. “Then men began to pray.” That passage really grabbed me because it came at the end of a long and detailed genealogy of Cain. Cain’s family was impressive. They were progressive. You find in his family great innovations in mettalurgy, music, and other areas of life. And yet, you find no mention of God in any of the description of the family. It…
Continue ReadingFriday Five Interview – Michael Catt
March 4, 2011Chances are, if you’ve heard of Michael Catt, it’s because you’ve watched Facing the Giants or Fireproof, both produced by Sherwood Baptist Church in Georgia. But that is only one of many accomplishments in his very full biography. Besides serving as Senior Pastor of this 3,000 member church (since 1989), Michael Catt is also the writer of six books, including, The Power of Surrender, the host of annual Refresh conferences, and is a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention. Michael is also the proprietor of a few biblically-rich websites, including VanceHavner.com, 2prophetu.com, and ronndunn.com. He also blogs at his personal…
Continue ReadingMe, God, and Sunday Morning
March 4, 2011This week I had a conversation with longtime believer. It was a conversation while on a flight to Nashville. It wasn’t long before our conversation veered toward the spiritual life. You could immediately tell from this lady’s conversations that she was someone who was kind, generous, and spiritual. And yet, when the topic came toward the Church, she shrunk back. She’d been hurt, deeply, by the Church experiences she’d encountered. She recounted a few of them and they were deep, hurtful, wicked events.
Continue ReadingFriday Five Interview – Dan King
February 25, 2011Every once in a while you meet someone who really knows and understands their craft. Dan King is that kind of person. Recently, I’ve gotten to know Dan, who is the proprietor of a unique Christian site, BibleDude.net. This is a really cool, interactive site with a variety of writers posting articles and blogs on all facets of the Christian life. Dan is someone who really “gets” the internet, social media, and the mediums that will shape how the gospel is communicated in the 21st Century. King’s travels have included projects to numerous countries in Africa and to Haiti, as…
Continue ReadingBook Review: Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas
February 23, 2011It’s hard to imagine a more complex study than the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. After more than a half-century after his death, the debate still rages about his life. Was he a committed evangelical motivated by the gospel to resist the Nazi regime? Or was he noble, yet a dedicated liberal theologian, a skeptic of the orthodox positions of the Christian church? Stepping into the breach is the extraordinarily talented biographer, Eric Metaxas. Metaxas, whose work on William Wilberforce was widely praised, seems to have a thing for the lives of counter-cultural, Christian reformers. Bonhoeffer, like Wilberforce, resisted the prevailing social trends…
Continue ReadingChristian Handwringing – A Favorite Pastime
February 21, 2011Along with potlucks, bad hair, and cheesy TV, another favorite past time of Christians is hand-wringing. I say this as a lifelong Christian and a pastor. For some reason, we think we’re more spiritual when we’re beating up ourselves. The easiest sermon to preach for a pastor is the one that beats up on “the Church” and points out some spiritual deficiency. And in the last few years, we’ve had a merry band of Christian pollsters who’ve given us fresh batches of alarming statistics to prove our points. But maybe, just maybe those stats are wrong. For instance, one of the…
Continue ReadingFriday Five – Jason Dukes
February 18, 2011My friend, Jason Dukes, stopped by to answer a few questions for The Friday Five. Jason is the founder and senior pastor of Westpointe Church in Central Florida. Jason planted this church seven years ago and now they are experiencing great growth as God has blessed their ministry. Jason has also had an influential role in creating the Restoration Concept, House Blend Cafe, the Reproducing Churches network, and the Church of West Orange. He is also the creator of humanitybeautiful.com, a website devoted to telling the great stories of God’s people serving on mission around the world. Jason is the author of Live Sent,…
Continue ReadingSinging Cowper’s Song
February 16, 2011I wanted to take a moment to explain the subtle change to my website. I recently asked my web guy, Sam Guzman, to add the words, “Redeeming Love Has Been My Theme and Shall Be Till I Die,” to the top logo area of my website. These is a line from the fourth verse of There is a Fountain, the wonderful, gospel soaked hymn by William Cowper. The entire verse reads like this: E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die. And shall be…
Continue ReadingReboot Your Life
February 14, 2011Sometimes you just need to reboot your computer and sometimes you need to reboot your life. Elijah realized this. In 1 Kings 19, we see the raw human side of this fiery prophet of God. His lessons are powerful lessons for today’s connected generation. I flesh that out in great detail in chapter five if iFaith. Here are some key excerpts: I’m finding that rebooting is essential for the long-term viability of the soul. I believe God allowed Elijah to suffer this discouragement for a purpose, because He wanted to correct a fatal flaw in his theology. Elijah bought into…
Continue ReadingFriday Five – Matthew Soerens
February 11, 2011It’s hard to find a more divisive issue in American politics than immigration. Good people fall on various sides of the issue. But church leaders are increasingly asking what role the church plays in addressing the needs of both legal and undocumented immigrants. Matthew Soerens has become a go-to leader on this issue. Matthew works as the US Church Training Specialist for World Relief, an evangelical organization that is especially devoted to helping refugees around the world. He is the coauthor of Welcoming the Stranger the very informative website, undocumented.tv, which answers questions and offers information in for assisting the…
Continue ReadingHow I Read the News
February 11, 2011The news comes fast and furious these days, from a variety of sources. Online, on the phone, someone texting you, Twitter, Facebook, cable news. We’re long from the days when news came from three TV sources, the all-news radio station, and your daily newspaper. Truthfully, I’m getting most of my news these days from Twitter. I follow a few journalists in areas of interest, such as politics, sports, the church, and publishing. In many ways it’s good, keeping the media accountable and revealing the hidden biases. But in other ways, it’s difficult to process the news, because it seems, increasingly,…
Continue ReadingBook Review: John Bunyan by Kevin Belmonte
February 8, 2011One of my favorite hobbies is reading biographies. Recently I had the opportunity to read and review Kevin Belmont’s excellent biography of John Bunyan. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly recommend it. Here is my review: Beside the King James Version of the Bible, few works of literature have had the impact of Pilgrim’s Progress. It has influenced world leaders, artists, authors, poets, and playrights. And today it continues its legacy, sharing the powerful allegory of a sinner’s spiritual journey toward Heaven. But who is the man behind this magnificent classic? Who is John Bunyan? Kevin Belmonte shares a…
Continue ReadingThoughtful Engagement on Immigration
February 7, 2011A few days ago I posted a blog expressing some of my frustration regarding what I perceived as some callousness on the part of evangelicals toward immigration. It provoked some discussion, mostly offline, among friends. Having some time to reflect, I realized that my post was written in haste, with little editing, and didn’t serve to edify. So I pulled it. That being said, God is really working on my heart on the issue of immigration. I really feel this is an issue we need to approach with a Great Commission perspective. Increasingly, the nations are coming to us, here…
Continue ReadingFriday Five Interview: Ginger Kolbaba
February 4, 2011After a couple of years of trying to get my work published and getting rejected (mainly because my writing wasn’t nearly good enough), in the Summer of 2004, I got a big break. Ginger Kolbaba, editor of Marriage Partnership, a magazine once published by Christianity Today, read an email query and said she liked my idea for a section for newlyweds titled “Work it Out.” I wrote a piece that shared our conflict over TV viewing. She accepted it and I felt like a million bucks. That piece helped launch my writing ministry. Well, Ginger and I have since become…
Continue ReadingBlue Screen Faith – Chapter Four of iFaith
February 3, 2011If you work with a computer as your main tool, as I do, the one thing you dread is to flip it open and see the Blue Screen of Death. This means that you’re computer won’t work for you and likely has to be reformated or replaced. Unless you know a magical friend who can do miracles on laptops. Well, sometimes life hands us Blue Screens, moments and seasons where nothing or nobody seems to be working for us. I devoted chapter four of iFaith to this idea. Here is an excerpt: Life seemed way too big for my abilities.…
Continue ReadingMy Car is in Here Somewhere
February 2, 2011What Every Pastor Should Say in the Mirror . . . Repeatedly
January 30, 2011This morning, as I was praying and preparing to preach, I listened to a an incredibly rich and convicting sermon, “The Pastor’s Charge” by C.J. Mahaney delivered at the Gospel Coalition Conference in 2009. I love listening to a variety of messages from a diverse group of speakers, so recently I subscribed to the Gospel Coalition podcast. CJ said something that is hitting me as a pastor. I’m paraphrasing, but he reminded pastors that even though they serve in a distinct, God-given role as shepherds of their flocks, they must remember that it is Jesus who is the chief shepherd,…
Continue ReadingFriday Five – Tom Nelson
January 28, 2011A few years ago, Steve Harvey, my uncle, handed me a manuscript for a book written by his pastor, Tom Nelson ofChrist Community Church of Olathe, Kansas. The book is titled, Ekklessia. Uncle Steve serves on the board of CCC and is passionate about what God is doing in and through the church in the Kansas City area. I immediately began to read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. At the time, I was prepping for a series on the key doctrines of the church and so Ekklesia was a perfect textbook for a message on the purpose of the…
Continue ReadingLiving on the Grace Side of Abortion
January 22, 2011This Sunday our church, along with many around the country, is celebrating Sanctity of Life Sunday. We stand and mourn the over 51 million children who have been killed innocently. 51 million is a big number, equal to 40 times the total American war deaths, from the Revolutionary War until the present. Take New York and California and wipe out their populations. Take 1/5th of the current U.S. Population. That gives you an idea of the innocents killed. So we mourn. We’re prolife, not because it’s a conservative issue or a Republican issue. Truthfully, some of my political positions put…
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