I spent the past two months preaching through selected stories from Acts. Sometimes I don’t know what a sermon is about until I’ve preached it. Same goes with a sermon series. I wish I could say I’m able to think so far ahead that I know why I’m preaching a particular series, but sometimes I’m […]
A New Chapter
It is my pleasure to announce that I have accepted the Senior Minister position at the Preston Road Church of Christ in Dallas. I was a guest speaker there back in March and that led to multiple conversations with the elders, search team, staff and other key leaders about filling the position. I tried to […]
May 21, 2012 by 32 Comments
Advice to Churches Working with Young Preachers
I’ve been hired as a young preacher twice, at ages 23 and 29. I made tons of young preacher mistakes and the churches I worked with had to put up with a lot from me. I’ve given advice to young preachers in the past and I’ll do it again in a future post. In this […]
March 14, 2011 by 13 Comments
Working with Young Preachers
This past weekend I had the privilege of spending some time with a young preacher working with a church in Southern California. I was impressed by his sincerity, humility, and total lack of cynicism. He has a tremendous future as a minister of the gospel. I hope the church he’s serving recognizes this and takes […]
March 9, 2011 by 8 Comments
Church Isn’t Supposed to be Fun
Church isn’t supposed to be fun. Yep. That’s what I said to my youngest when he dug in his heels about going to our new church because he wasn’t having very much fun there. Just saying it made me want to pull my pants up over my belly button and comb the hair growing out […]
February 9, 2011 by 16 Comments
The Secret to Being Miserable in all Circumstances
I’ve been working on developing a framework of “organizational wisdom” for churches that can help them do a better job of discerning and then deciding their next best steps to accomplish their mission. One of the ideas I’m exploring is that many of the wisdom principles taught in the book of Proverbs apply to groups […]
January 19, 2011 by 4 Comments
Feed Me!
Genre Alert: The following post is a rant. They were once popular among bloggers, but have since all but disappeared, with good reason I’m sure. ******* “We just want to be fed.” Every pastor has heard it from someone. Sometimes you catch it when they’re coming and sometimes when they’re going. It’s something that church-going […]
September 15, 2010 by 13 Comments
Enter the Darkness
Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this […]
April 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Transformation Guaranteed
In a recent post, I described my experience with crossfit and the difference it’s made in my life. I’m not alone in this. I’ve seen plenty of people cautiously step into a crossfit gym, give it a try, and have something powerful awakened within them. At the end of the post, I said that I’ve […]
July 28, 2009 by 7 Comments
One Year Later
The first picture was taken on July 18, 2008. The second was taken exactly one year later. Today, I’m in better shape, have more energy and confidence, and feel ready for just about anything life throws at me. One year ago I was burned out, depressed, and stuck in a coffin-sized rut. What brought about […]
July 20, 2009 by 14 Comments
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons