Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash In his excellent book The Call: Finding and Fulfilling The Central Purpose of Your Life, Os Guinness makes the following statement: “As followers of Christ we are called to be before we are called…
Hanging On To God’s Call
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash While walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw four fishermen. He had met them before but this time was special. He had decided that he wanted to include them in…
Building Future Leaders
Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash When I was 17 years of age, one of our youth leaders made what I thought was a crazy suggestion. She thought it would be a good idea if our youth group led a…
Personal Gifts of Grace
Last week I received an update letter from one of my favorite missionaries. She serves as a midwife in Guatemala and in this update she shared two stories that dealt with the normal living out of her life in that…
Count Your Blessings
In 1897 Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote what would become a classic hymn. It appeared in many of the hymn books that were used before power point became popular. It was a hymn that encouraged people in the midst of difficult…
Sharing The Riches
I am currently reading two books that while they aren’t about small churches or about churches of any size, they are stretching my thinking and challenging my walk with God. The first is a new publication written by John Stackhouse,…
The Passing of the Seasons
chris-lawton-unsplash.jpg While working out of my office in my basement today, I have heard my wife taking down the Christmas decorations. I am always a little bit sad when the Christmas season ends and for us it ends when the…
New Beginnings
nordwood-themes-1066398-unsplash.jpg This entry is being sent out on January 2nd, the second day of a brand new year. I love New Year’s Day because it provides a new beginning in which I can start everything anew. I’m like you. This…
Christmas Is Still Special
At some point every Christmas my mother would see the short form (Xmas) for Christmas and she would become upset. It was always followed by a statement that our culture was trying to take Christ out of Christmas. Her complaint…
Jesus Is The Reason For The Season
photo by Dan Kiefer on Unsplash If you are like me your life right now is filled with Christmas activities. I have attended two turkey dinners already with several more on the way. I have been to a beautiful Christmas…