Once upon a time there was a mother hen who had a brood of chicks. They lived in a large barnyard surrounded by a field. Her chicks were cute, cuddly, and LOUD. Their constant peeping could always be heard, no matter where you were in the barnyard. Their mother thought of them as her “precious […]
Rest Makes You Stronger
Take a Break A couple of years ago, we had an athlete in our gym who was drinking the CrossFit Kool-Aid with both hands. You could see it in his eyes. He was obsessed, maybe even addicted. CrossFit was rewarding his obsession with fantastic results. He was lean, fast, and strong. He was improving in […]
March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
From This Angle
I do not like the man sitting across from me in Starbucks. At first, I thought he was a typical older gentlemen having a cup of coffee, while his wife shops at a nearby store. Then he started reading a magazine that told me everything I needed to know about him. It is a religious […]
February 18, 2013 by 4 Comments
The “New” Problem of Evil
In Evil and the Justice of God, N. T. Wright names three issues that characterize what he calls “The New Problem of Evil.” 1. We ignore evil except when it hits us in the face. 2. We are surprised by evil when it does. 3. As a result, we react in immature and dangerous ways. […]
February 6, 2013 by 1 Comment
The Ugly Side of CrossFit
The following is an excerpt from Train For Something Greater: An Athlete’s Guide to Spiritual Fitness available at Amazon.com. The Ugly Side of CrossFit One of the knocks against CrossFit is that many CrossFitters come across as arrogant to outsiders. Where are they getting this impression? I have no idea. Wanna buy a T-shirt? […]
January 14, 2013 by 6 Comments
Surrender Control of the Outcomes
Here’s another lesson I learned about preaching from my brief stint as a guest speaker in multiple churches: Surrender control of the outcomes. One of the freedoms I enjoyed most as an interim preacher was that my sermons were usually not generated by a specific situation at the church where I was speaking. I found […]
December 18, 2012 by 4 Comments
Being Wrong
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 […]
December 10, 2012 by 4 Comments
Salvation By Port-a-Potty (An Advent Reflection)
(For those on the email list for this blog, sorry for the repost. My database was reset yesterday and I lost this post. So I had to load it again.) My favorite scene from the movie “Castaway” furnishes a great metaphor for Advent reflection. It’s the pivotal scene after Tom Hanks’s character has acclimated to […]
December 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Preaching To Those Who Don’t Know The Bible
Several weeks ago I preached a sermon from Acts 2. I mentioned Pentecost, but didn’t take the time to explain the background of the Pentecost Festival because I was trying keep my sermon from going too long. (From what I can tell, at the church where I preach, anything over thirty minutes starts to feel […]
November 26, 2012 by 1 Comment
How to Preach Better Sermons: The Shorter The Better
From March 2009 to September 2012, I didn’t write very many sermons from scratch. During this three year period, I did plenty of preaching, but it was almost exclusively sermons I had already written and preached before. Being a guest speaker in a church, even when doing four or five Sundays in a row, is […]
November 14, 2012 by 11 Comments
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons