Teaching Tithing to Students

October 22, 2007

LifeWay Research reports that 64% of young adults who continue attending church between the ages of 18-22 consistently give financially to their church. Church leaders and researches have discussed at length the declining spiritual health of the younger generation. But it is clear that those students who stay and grow spiritually in the church end up supporting their church financially. What do you think? Should we teach tithing to students? Or should we allow them to get more connected with the Read more [...]

What Teens are Looking for in Church

October 15, 2007

I’m a night owl. And sometimes late at night I go for the fourth meal. I am usually not hungry. But the glow of the refrigerator light beckons. So I open the door and look. My wife is a health teacher. So the fridge houses little in the junk food category. Apples, carrots, and celery…drats! Then I remember we’ve got light whip cream in the freezer. It’s cold like ice cream, but it just doesn’t taste the same. Most of us are guilty – we open the refrigerator and stare. Hunger is not striking Read more [...]

No Greater Love

October 11, 2007

John 15:12-13 “This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.” A true story from Idaho: A vacuum cleaner salesman knocks on a door. He is denied a sale because the homeowner can’t afford it. He inquires why. He learns the man of the house has kidney failure and is undergoing costly medical procedures. He also learns that there is little hope of a transplant due to the 500-person-long waiting Read more [...]

The Problem of Negative Perceptions

October 8, 2007

Last week I opened what was obviously a medical bill, only to find that our insurance had denied coverage for a recent trip to the doctor’s office. The bill was high enough to cause me quite a bit of anxiety. Erin has learned to let me level off when I get high strung. So after I cooled down, she mentioned matter-of-fact that a conversation with the insurance company might solve the problem. The following day she returned from work to inform me that the insurance company had our information wrong Read more [...]

The Big Mac and the Ten Commandments

October 3, 2007

"In God We Trust” is our nation’s official motto, but perhaps our stomachs take precedent over our souls. A recent survey reveals that more Americans recognize “two all beef patties” as ingredients in a Big Mac than recognize “Thou shalt not kill” as one of Ten Commandments. Eight out of ten respondents recalled the two grease-beefs, while only six out of ten identified perhaps the most known of the Ten Commandments. We truly are a junk-food nation. But now the golden arches seem to Read more [...]

Fifty Years of ‘In God We Trust’

October 1, 2007

I am actually excited about going to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to register my truck in Indiana. Don’t get me wrong, shelling out a wad of dough in order to get a thin piece of metal stuck on the back of my truck is not what brings me this excitement. Rather, I’m stoked about getting one of the Indiana “In God We Trust” license plates. Drive around the state for any amount of time, and you will see several. I bring up this subject to tell everyone that today marks the 50th anniversary Read more [...]

Celebrating Baptism

September 27, 2007

While I typically cannot sleep on Saturday nights, I have an extra measure of excitement when I know that I will baptize someone the following day. Church members seem to smile a little larger and shake my hand a little firmer on those Sundays when the baptistery is full of water. After the service, our entire church celebrates with a huge birthday cake for the one who just professed their faith. I believe that all churches should celebrate baptism. We put so much hype into a wedding (and rightly Read more [...]

All in Common Vice

September 24, 2007

If you’re a pastor, you know firsthand that some of the funniest moments in life occur in the church. One of these ‘moments’ came this Sunday in our church while singing during worship. My father and mother, visiting from Nashvegas, pointed out that we sang “all in common vice.” Apparently, the great PowerPoint typo this week was changing the word “voice” to “vice” in one of the worship songs. We got a good laugh at lunch when my Dad mentioned it. Of course, I didn’t even notice Read more [...]

India: The Statistical Center of Gravity

September 20, 2007

Before I was called into the ministry, I worked for a commodities firm trading power and natural gas for large industrial end-users. During my tenure at the company, I was placed on a team overseeing some of the technological advances we would introduce to our clients. We ended up outsourcing a good portion of the work to a company in India. They would build the system overnight; we would come in the next morning and double-check their work. During this process, I interacted with several people Read more [...]

The Naked Pastor and the Great Commission

September 16, 2007

I was recently posed a simple question: “What makes a church innovative in fulfilling the Great Commission?” Innovation is making creative changes or introducing a new perspective on something already firmly established. The Great Commission is established in Matthew 28, right before Christ ascends into heaven, leaving the disciples to continue the good news message of great hope and security. Since Scripture is the incarnate Word, unchanging as God is unchanging, how does one innovate on the Read more [...]