Today is Mother’s Day. This is a time we celebrate motherhood. If there’s any one thing that all people have in common, it’s that we all have a mother. Today is a good day for some—eating with family, remembering the good of a mother, and the love she gave and/or continues to give. But today […]
People often ask me as a church starter: What do you need? Here is a list of my honest answers: 1) Relational Support We church planters can get lonely. Scheduling varies from day to day with no set office hours. Take time to take a church planter to lunch, ask her or him about family life, […]
I saw a church marquee that had a chuckle-worthy tagline. It said: St. So-and-so Church: “We love hurting people.” I think what the church means by this tagline is that they are a church that loves people who are hurting. The anguished English on the sign makes me giggle, but when I get past the […]
This page was blank. It had endless possibilities: Pictures, foreign words, scribbles, symbols. Now it has ink on it. No eraser. Pen stains. Words trap. Our pen marks name that which is not ours. The limitless superfluous pace is shrinking. The infinite imagination of white space still exists But the parameters I created are now […]
The sky is fickle: Bright then dark. I need some sunshine to ignite my track. Without clarity how will purpose find meaning? Without glasses what will I miss? With no light to illuminate vision I dwell but overlook the present. The night has as much power as the day But only if I close my […]
My dogs love playing in the backyard — running, barking and wrestling. The spring season is the best time for them to be outside: they have thick coats and the weather is cool. Unfortunately, we only have one small, developed tree in the back yard. Without shade, the dogs don’t like spending time in the […]
The Gospel reading from church on Sunday challenged our church plant: Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot” (Matthew 5:13, NRSV). In the first century, […]
A couple of weeks ago, I received a rather eventful voicemail from a church member: “Hey man, got a crazy story to tell you. It ends with me delivering our baby unexpectedly on the bathroom floor this morning. Everyone’s doing fine now. Talk to you later.” A couple in our church thought they would deliver […]
When there is a storm outside at night, I do not get much sleep. I know what you are thinking, and I am actually not afraid of the thunder, lightning, and rain, but I do have a big ole dog who absolutely freaks out during storms. When thunder comes at night, our dog, Kennedy, starts […]
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.” Well, sometimes you may walk the same mile, but the shoes you wear make all the difference. My wife and I like to take our dogs on a walk around San Gabriel Park, which is about 1.6 miles. When walking in tennis […]
