tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-110305602025-07-10T14:45:15.374-04:00the winding journey with jesusUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger626125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-51042657954723600392016-05-18T09:58:00.003-04:002016-05-18T10:03:26.070-04:00

Life is so brief.  And it never appears more so than when you cross this strange threshold of being middle-aged.  Reflecting on the first half of life a variety of things flutter around in my head.   Does what I'm about to say sound familiar to anyone else? In the next four to five years all my kids will be done with school.  I may even be a grandparent by that

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-81665843323421454242016-03-01T21:54:00.004-05:002016-08-10T09:03:13.683-04:00

Jonathan Chambers and I have had a significant friendship for almost ten years.  We planted a church together...and closed it together.  He's led me in worship too many times to count.  I've watched his kids grow up, he's watched mine get old.  And our wives are best of friends. He's also an entrepreneur, an idea guy.  So am I.  Put us in a room together and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-19100945390895818882015-11-12T21:51:00.000-05:002015-11-12T21:51:12.941-05:00

Most Christians, including me, seem to get tripped by something that creates a downfall toward disunity and spiritual emptiness.  I've recently been reading a history of the Azusa Street Revival around the turn of the 20th century.  What's become evident is that this root problem we trip over in our journey with Jesus is one that we actually have the power to identify and uproot 

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-54483797895091007992015-10-02T20:00:00.000-04:002016-03-01T20:38:21.431-05:00

My good friend, Vince Coakley, hosted me once more today to follow up on my most recent post.  In this opportunity together I unfold more of my story and experience inside and now outside the institutional church.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-39222005771859130912015-09-30T19:32:00.000-04:002015-09-30T21:13:27.162-04:00

Today I caught up with Steve Bremner's podcast with Dan Dailey.  Steve contacted me about it a day or two ago, since he knew Dan and I were acquainted.  Both Dan and Steve are actually Facebook friends with whom I've had some significant conversation over the last nine months. Listening to the podcast on the way home from work prompted me to get my some things off my chest about the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-51050317153340941292015-09-21T12:19:00.001-04:002015-09-28T22:26:39.367-04:00

I've had a love/hate relationship with "Christianity" for many years. Since 11 years old, as a matter of fact. Here's the part I've loved: the Jesus I see in Scripture. Here's the part I've hated: conformity to a system or structure that I could not see in Scripture. So I've come to call the thing I've loved, Christianity, and the thing I've hated, churchianity.   As I reflect

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-89176778348075811232015-08-21T07:29:00.000-04:002015-08-21T07:45:48.342-04:00

God often brings along the right friends at just the right time in life.  For me, Vince Coakley has been one of those friends for over ten years now.  We met, as I recall, around 2004, through blogging and our mutual involvement in Sovereign Grace Ministries at the time. As Vince transitioned out of SGM and into Newfrontiers, I was not far behind.  And as Vince transitioned

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-59336859979518007242015-06-23T22:35:00.001-04:002015-06-23T22:35:28.751-04:00

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-4987566064795759882015-06-20T14:37:00.005-04:002015-06-20T14:40:37.106-04:00

Click the image below to get invited to the event! Click the image above to get invited to the event!

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-11023078642022988162015-06-10T14:07:00.000-04:002015-06-11T11:27:30.884-04:00

    One of the most challenging things spouses can encounter during a marriage is the inconvenient lack of synchronized sex drives.  I know in my own marriage my sex drive may sync with my wife's about a half dozen times per year (not that I'm keeping track...it's just my a guesstimate).  Those are pretty awesome seasons, to say the least.  But between seasons?  

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-50706642223309459612015-06-09T11:08:00.001-04:002015-06-09T11:09:21.952-04:00

Two weeks from tonight, I'll have the privilege of interviewing Dr. Josh Packard regarding his newly released book, Church Refugees: Sociologists reveal why people are DONE with church but not their faith. This event is being sponsored by The Pneuma Review, an online, Spirit-filled, theological journal I write for from time to time. I requested to review this this book on their site,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-9642426639974592082015-06-01T00:27:00.000-04:002015-06-04T09:37:56.558-04:00

I was a bit troubled by an article I read yesterday.  In fact, I'd be dishonest if I didn't say I was deeply troubled.  Nathan Rose is the senior pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Liberty, Missouri and a Legacy Church Planting coach with NAMB.  He recently wrote blog post entitled, "5 Spiritual Dangers of Skipping Church." He begins his article with his firm

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-87367817311082380052015-05-20T17:16:00.001-04:002015-06-01T12:18:09.877-04:00

Scroll down to see the list   So which one are you? Steve Simms posted earlier today about three groups of people in the church. His definitions are a helpful starting place, which I list here with my own revisions. Dones:  people who have given up on the traditional church format. Not Dones: people who are still trying to hang with the program (many of whom are honestly

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-46529966620968336082015-05-19T08:50:00.001-04:002015-05-19T09:58:14.585-04:00

I have told my children that one of the most significant issues they will have to deal with, far more than my wife and I today, is the issue of homosexuality and marriage. There are two handrails to hold onto in this issue, as far as I can tell. 1. Jesus loves everybody. Period. He does not have favorites, nor does he show partiality. Regardless of what kind of tendencies a person is

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-88439520619041081542014-09-15T12:00:00.000-04:002015-05-14T23:29:35.492-04:00

Key: defending those who are NOT present.  Maintaining their dignity in conversations about them. No one likes to be gossiped about.  The internal emotional pain is deep, heated, and discouraging when we discover that someone has been talking about us unfavorably behind our back.  Part of the pain is rooted in the fact that we know that whoever was participating and/or

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-47738976094873403362014-08-25T09:51:00.000-04:002014-09-15T15:02:33.978-04:00

Several months ago The Pneuma Review and I became acquainted.  We connected and I felt a kindred spirit in Raul Mock.  After Raul reviewed my blog it became evident to both of us that, in light of my background, it would be fitting for me to do a review of Michael Brown's Authentic Fire, his response to John MacArthur's Strange Fire. After a couple of revisions it finally published

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-13520895377946957492014-07-18T12:01:00.000-04:002014-09-15T15:02:49.935-04:00

Your Struggle With Porn Comes From a Distracted Life For some strange reason that I cannot explain, other than the grace and plan of God, I have never struggled with a porn habit.  I have looked at it a handful of times over the course of my life.  I have seen about a half dozen videos in my entire life.  While other habits have seemingly dominated my life at various times, I'm

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-41245580981889788142014-03-20T14:21:00.001-04:002014-03-20T15:19:24.279-04:00

10. Discussion You'll need an important preface to this post.  You've finally come to the place in this series where you're now actually at the meeting itself, ready to get down to the business of business.  It's easy to skip ahead passed the previous nine posts in this series to cut to the chase, to the "meat" of meetings.  But if you've done this you've missed something

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-13562845478789589282014-03-17T12:50:00.000-04:002014-03-20T15:28:23.536-04:00

9. Appoint a note taker. With your prioritized agenda in print and in hand, it's almost time to get to the actual task of meeting together.  Almost.  But not quite yet.   It's interesting how often the small things are overlooked, right?  I lead an executive team which essentially functions as the corporate team for the business we oversee.  

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The tempation is almost overwhelming at times, if you're a manager or business owner.  You find yourself with a task sitting in front of you and you think to yourself, as any responsible business person would think: "I should just go ahead and take care of this."  And so you do it.  Without any hesitation, you handle it, and sometimes without any follow up to let your employee

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-61541467004417786972013-11-30T22:32:00.001-05:002013-11-30T22:32:04.166-05:00

http://thecripplegate.com/ Today I read through an interesting article by Lyndon Unger.  It was entitled, "So who exactly IS the mainstream of the charismatic movement?"  I found it chocked massively full of some solid research asking the questions: who are the cautious-but-open crowd? who are the charismaniacs? who are the cessationists? The research is based on

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-22272023232673165492013-11-29T12:00:00.000-05:002013-11-29T12:00:03.829-05:00

One of the most pervasive problems in small-business ownership is…  The owner!   I have worked for six small businesses in my life, so far. In all but one, the trend was the same.  The multiple mounting responsibilities and pressures of the business surround business owners like hungry wolves. As a result, they cannot sit still long enough to think clearly and accurately

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-80392952577931684662013-11-27T09:30:00.000-05:002013-11-27T09:30:03.397-05:00

Success begins with delegation.  At the core of their being successful people do not really believe that they can do everything by themselves.  Those who do may manage businesses, organizations, or teams...but they are micromanagers who create a ceiling for themselves which they will never be able to rise beyond. Successful people also know how delegation works.  They never

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-65394657203608260372013-11-26T09:00:00.000-05:002014-03-20T15:27:39.804-04:00

8. Prioritize & Prepare the Agenda.  Assuming you've received input from your team on what you need to meet about (Part 1), and assuming you've set a reasonable time frame for the meeting (Part 7), you are ready to do the next important steps: prioritizing and preparing your agenda.   First, let's consider prioritization of a meeting agenda.  Even though you may have a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11030560.post-26764975345319746302013-11-25T09:00:00.000-05:002013-11-25T09:00:08.861-05:00

I heard it said once that, common sense is so uncommon it ought to be considered a superpower! How many times before have you tried to give instructions or an explanation to someone, such as an employee or work associate, and somehow, inexplicably  they did not understand what you said?  I have been baffled before as to how detailed I've been in my explanations and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0