I am grateful for Sarah S who led us through the CoJourners study over these last four Sundays. I love the balance between challenging us and setting reasonable goals and expectations. God has put us in the lives of people who need Jesus, He's already at work in their lives, and He wants to use...
Once a quarter, I host a "pastor cluster" here at Grace - a group of EFCA pastors in the KC Metro area who meet to learn, discuss current church issues, or share what we've been learning, and then share a meal and have about an hour and half for prayer. All of us find it hard to make time for...
The second wave is coming. Europe is seeing it. We're beginning to see it. COVID-19 has caught its breath and is striking back hard, like the Chiefs after falling 24-0 in a playoff game. The implications are everywhere - work, stock market, eating out, loved ones getting sick ... the list is...
By the time this article is fully published, I expect we'll have a declaration on the presidential election - but as of this writing on Wednesday afternoon, it's still a toss up. Also in current news is the recent spike in COVID numbers for our county. We've even had one of our own recently...
This morning, Jon R and I attended a webinar put on by our district (the Midwest district of the EFCA) on racial reconciliation. The speaker was Pastor Luther Eatman of Bridge of Hope Church in the urban core of KCK. Most of you know Pastor Luther. The content was rich and too much to include...
Noah Palmer has been the District Superintendent of the Midwest District of the EFCA since 2012. Noah has been the right person for the task for the times, and he has been very helpful and encouraging to me personally. I'm going to miss his wisdom, humor, and teaching. Noah will finish this...
Sometimes we have people share part of their story of faith during our worship service, and they are always encouraging. But not everyone is comfortable speaking in front of people. So, here's my appeal, invitation, exhortation, plea, and request: Would you please write out a short story of...
You've heard about the 7AM weekday online devotional that we started when the shutdown first began. Now that things are opening up again, we don't want to stop! But what is this devo like? We first scheduled them to be 5-10 minutes, just a quick thought from me, and then prayer. But now it has...
I mentioned in a previous article the online group I'm a part of to learn Italian and what it taught me about pretending in the Christian life. This group has generated another life lesson for me. Since the previous article, the members of the group have changed a bit and now settled to a...
I wouldn't think twice about spending $10 in order to get $1000 in return. It's just $10, so even if it doesn't work out, I'm not out much. It's not gambling - the $1000 is all but certain, but still ... just in case. But 100 times return on investment is a good deal! But would I spend that...