Hitchhiking, Moving, and a Little Bit of Nice Goes a Long Way

June 26, 2007

After packing two or three boxes, I was ready for dinner. Two weeks ago my wife and I were in the middle of stuffing corrugated cardboard full of our most precious belongings wrapped in the Sunday funnies. Moving is excitingly painful. Erin had volunteered for one of the chaperone posts at our church’s student lock-in. She in turn volunteered me to finish packing our 900 square foot cracker box. We had finally sold our place, bought another, and were moving on up to Southern Indiana, closer to Read more [...]

This is What It’s All About

June 24, 2007

I love what I do! Being a pastor is such a joy. While the fickle complaints and occasional backbiting occurs, I am blessed to have a congregation that by-and-large supports me and their fellow believer. We certainly have areas in our church where we can improve, but I am impressed by the resiliency of the people and the desire to return to health. Exemplified this week at Vacation Bible School, the church united around the common goal of seeing children come to Christ. One child came forward today Read more [...]

Service of Passionate Devotion

June 19, 2007

I am reading Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest as part of my daily devotional time. The following excerpt from today’s reading struck me. If you have not read this classic devotional, it is one of the most encouraging and challenging books ever written. "Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep." John 21:16 Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian Read more [...]

Winning the Next Generation for Christ

June 18, 2007

The church needs to be in crisis mode. At the Southern Baptist Convention last week I learned a scary statistic. Of the “Builder” generation (those that fought in WWII), about 65% were Christians. Of the “Boomer” generation, about 35% were Christians. Of GenXers, about 15% are Christians. And of the youngest generation, it is estimated that only 4-8% are Christians. I think we can all admit that we could do a better job of reaching the world. But quite frankly, we aren’t reaching our own Read more [...]

Live from the SBC!

June 13, 2007

For those of you who don’t know, I am a Southern Baptist. And unless you are a Southern Baptist, you probably don’t realize that this week is our annual convention. This year’s convention is in San Antonio, TX – so I write to you from there. Once a year the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) occurs for two days (typically on Tuesday and Wednesday). “SBC” refers to both the annual meeting and the denomination itself. It is at this meeting that many resolutions and motions are presented Read more [...]

Churches that Make a Comeback

June 7, 2007

Pulling into the gravel parking lot, I saw the church for the first time. And I thought I was in a time warp. The building had been constructed in the early 1920s. The sign on the front said “Established in 1856.” Not much had changed in the community since that time. The church had no A/C, no phone, and a karaoke machine for a sound system. It had taken me two hours to get to the church. Given that some of the roads in the area were unpaved, I figured my ETA to be a minor victory. I said a Read more [...]

Piggyback Christians

June 4, 2007

The Associated Press reported today about a little-known loophole in the mortgage loan application process. Since I am right in the middle of selling my current place, getting a loan for a new house, and trying to move all within a week, I took notice of the story. Basically, a person wanting to raise their credit score upwards of 200 points can buy into another person’s credit history by becoming an authorized user on their credit card accounts. In essence those with lower credit scores pay $1,000-$2,000 Read more [...]

A Wayward Generation

May 28, 2007

"Gas prices are outrageous. I should probably sell my SUV and buy that Escort I saw advertised in the paper, but that might be just too smart for me to do it.” Although I had just met Duane waiting in line for the log flume, he and I struck up a good conversation. He was telling me about feeling the pinch of traveling 30 miles to work everyday. “But I can’t imagine driving around in that little thing,” Duane laughed. My brothers and I were at King’s Island celebrating his bachelor party Read more [...]

God Cares about the Details

May 25, 2007

Last night I was leading our prayer group at church. Someone asked if my wife and I had sold our house yet. Tired of being asked about it I responded, “No, but it’s all in God’s timing. Keep praying we’ll sell it.” Like many with “for sale” signs in their yards, we weren’t getting many offers on our place. The goal was to be closer to the church, but months had gone by with no bites. Perhaps I showed my true feelings with my curt response at the prayer meeting. And I don’t know Read more [...]

Can You Live Without Your Bible?

May 22, 2007

One of my biggest pet peeves as a pastor is the number of people that do not bring their Bibles to church. Every time I preach I begin by asking the congregation to open their Bibles to a particular passage. I then follow with, “And that is on page 707 in your pew Bibles.” Even then, only a handful of folks will reach for the Bible in front of them. Of course, I can always count on a cell phone blaring the popular song of the moment at least once a month. It seems that people have their phones Read more [...]