Wednesday is for Prayer When was the last time you got away for an extended time of prayer? A time to listen to the voice of God in his word? A time to reflect on the greatness of the gospel and the ministry of reconciliation to which you have been entrusted? When was the last … More Prayer Essentials for a Ministry of Length and Depth
Tuesday is for Preaching Here’s a video of Tim Keller on what the Bible is all about. If you preach the word of God, if you have the responsibility of opening the word of life for a flock of God’s people, you need to wrestle with what Tim Keller says here. Then you need to … More Why Every Message Ought to be About the Gospel
Saturday Discussion Back in 2010, I interviewed Dr. Peter Nelson, author of the new book, Spiritual Formation: Ever Forming, Never Formed, (Biblica Publishing). Here is a sneak peek at one paragraph that captured my attention. But with Christ’s global Great Commission to make disciples among all the people groups on earth, a dramatic shift of … More We’ve Been Practicing Old Testament Paradigms
Weekend Musings Sunday I leave for Schenectady, NY to train church planters at a conference with Dynamic Church Planting International (DCPI). Usually, I teach the track associated with Churches Planting Churches but this time I will be teaching the Church Planting Essentials track. I’m excited about the opportunity to work with church planters and those … More Training Church Planters from the Northeast and Canada
Weekend Musings Sometimes a foreign language can illuminate an issue with a clarity that our native language seems tongue-tied about. Reading Bruce Rowlison’s 1981 book on Creative Hospitality I read this: “In the German, the word for hospitality is Gastfreundschaft which means ‘the freedom of the guest.’” Henri Nouwen picks up the same idea in some … More Gastfreundschaft: “the freedom of the guest”
Weekend Musings “Why is it that in the church we usually violate so many of the rules of hospitality? Where else in our society do we force people to get all dressed up [that one we have relaxed a bit] and sit in very hard seats for one hour, and sit in such a position … More Relearning Christian Hospitality:
Friday is for Heart Songs “A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.’ —C.S. Lewis May all your … More C.S. Lewis on Humility and Thankfulness
Thursday is for Discipleship What is included in making disciples? Are disciple-making and discipleship the same thing? Is spiritual-formation a synonym for making-disciples? What do we gain when we separate evangelism from discipleship? What do we lose? Why did Jesus never separate evangelism (proclamation) from following (spiritual formation)? If Jesus didn’t separate them, any ideas … More Questions We Never Ask But Should
Update: (September 26, 2019) This is post is almost 10 years old but as I read and remembered the day that I wrote it I was reminded that this is the crying need of my heart every day of my life. I hope it will be encouragement to you value what is ultimately valuable. Thursday … More Searching for Treasure Like a Pearl Merchant
Almost a year ago, just before Christmas, we were hit with blizzard winds and snow here in Bolingbrook. Stephnie and I decided to have worship here, in the confines of our home with our just-from-college-returned son, and pre-c0llege daughter rather than brave the chill of winter and another visit to a church that is not … More Longing to Know that I Need Him Every Hour
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