This article has been a long time coming. If you are a long-time follower of my writing (and I mean long time), you may recall an article I wrote back in 2015 titled, “A Word of Caution Concerning ‘Relationship Evangelism’.” In that article, I wr...
I’m presently making last-minute travel arrangements to head to Dallas at the end of the week. This year marks my 11th year in a row attending the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. It’s my 13th meeting in total. Yes, I go because of my...
Language matters, but language without substance is just rhetoric. The last two decades in church ministry have seen an impressive shift in the way we speak about the mission of the church. We’ve adopted a language of multiplication. And with thi...
I recently stumbled across an article at The Gospel Coalition that caught my attention. The article, titled “The Increasing Value of Christian Testimonies”, resonated. In fact, I make similar claims in my Christian missions courses at the seminary...
A podcast episode with NC Baptist on recent demographic trends in North Carolina and how those impact Great Commission ministry.
A couple of months ago, I made the mistake of posting an off-handed comment on Facebook. The next thing I knew, I was in meetings with some folk from our state convention in North Carolina talking missions strategy about that off-handed comment. ...
One of the joys of my job is serving as cohost for our seminary’s missions podcast, The Sent Life. Scott Hildreth and I talk each week about Christian missions and a whole bundle of topics that relate to it. The following is a series we did which...
Welcome! If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve been to my website before, probably clicking on an article somewhere along the way. Historically, many of my site visitors are repeat offenders, but that is what I hope for when it come...
This article is the second in a two-part series on Christ’s command in Matthew 7:1-5. In this artile, we provide a specific application of this command. This first article provides necessary background and proper interpretation for the passage. Yo...
Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. Nowadays, few Bible verses are quoted quite so often as this one. Not so surprisingly, few are misquoted quite so often. And yet, I truly believe Jesus’ original intended meaning for these words in h...
The Cook family has some big news to share! We want to announce to you Charles Ezra Cook, our second child and first son. We are presently on day six and mug 58 of coffee, but thankful to God for our newest addition to the family. The Details...
A sermon preached at Neartown Church in Houston during COVID lockdown. The text is Matthew 28:16-20.
In my last article, I covered several important benefits for a local church entering into a global missions partnership with a missionary team overseas. Feel free to start there if you’d like. To be honest, when I first arrived in Houston, I quic...
Sending global missionaries is one of my favorite topics of conversation with pastors and church leaders. Having been an international missionary myself, it always does my heart good when a pastor or church leader starts asking questions about how...
A sermon preached at Neartown Church in Houston during COVID lockdown. The text is Psalm 89.
A sermon preached at Neartown Church in Houston during COVID lockdown. The text is Mark 8:27-38.
A sermon preached at Neartown Church in Houston during COVID lockdown. The text is Matthew 5:38-48.
Over the last two months, I’ve watched a scene unfold more than once. As the reality set in for pastors and church leaders concerning the ramifications of this pandemic, an initial concern followed. Many churches that were already plateaued or dec...
It’s funny how much being a parent changes your perspective on things. Everyone tells you it will, and you believe them. Then it happens, and you are still amazed at the difference it makes. In recent weeks, I’ve stumbled across a simple book by ...
I initially pulled this book list together during the pandemic a few years ago. Back then, all kinds of posts were appearing that recommended book lists for people to consider during our global shut-in. I even wrote one suggesting you use this ...
In our current season of ministry, it would be tempting to remove our focus from the core missionary task of sending laborers into the harvest. It should go without saying, during a time of social distancing the means through which we fulfill the ...
“We need more planters.” I hear it more than in the past. I can remember, only a few years ago, speaking with representatives at some of our national church planting agencies (and even some of the smaller church planting networks) and hearing the...
Love your enemies. That’s a tall order, but it is exactly what Jesus expects of his followers. In his most famous of sermon’s Jesus lays out a kingdom ethic for his followers. In Matthew 5, he underscores a clear expectation of his disciples: Chr...
I like to keep everyone that frequents this website as up-to-date as possible on research pertaining to immigration in the United States. In my estimation, the startling rise of immigration over the last several decades presents one of the most ...
If there was any question about whether or not Jesus’ kingdom ethic is counter-cultural, the Sermon on the Mount should remove those doubts. Jesus is speaking to his disciples about what it means to live as a citizen of a different kingdom. He rep...
Is it just me, or does it seem like church leaders are always trying to get their congregation excited about something? Sometimes it is a new sermon series, or a new initiative. Often, it is a building project or a new ministry the church plans to...
This week, I received an email I wanted to share concerning ESL ministries in local churches. The email was in response to an article I wrote a while back entitled Turn Your ESL Ministry into a Church Planting Machine. For their part, a local chur...
The Brookings Institute recently ran an article titled, “These are the groups most likely to stop participating in the US census,” in which they parse out some of the significant consequences of a recent ruling concerning the upcoming 2020 US cens...
“Church planter, you need a vision in order to successfully start your church.” “Pastor, if you want your church to be healthy again, your church needs a fresh vision.” You’ve heard those words. I’ve said those words. For the most part, th...
The following is an excerpt from a free local church resource. The resource is a quick reference for carefully examining your local church in its missions context. You can download the resource at the end of the post. “The gospel never fits prope...
Do you have any good websites I can visit for demographic data on my neighborhood? If I’ve been asked that question once, I’ve received it a dozen times. And for what it is worth, it’s a good question. Nowadays, many pastors and church leaders un...
“A gospel-centered church is not one where the preacher preaches the gospel, but where the people share the gospel.” ~John Meador A couple of weeks ago, I commented on an article at Christianity Today by John Meador of First Baptist Euless, T...
Every now and then, I have an article on the internet reach out and slap me in the face. Today it was in a good way, and I wanted to share it with you. It is an article at Christianity Today by John Meador, pastor of First Baptist Euless, TX. In ...
I fell for it every year. When I was growing up in my small hometown, the biggest week or the year was when the regional fair came to town. Our Rotary park would fill with rides, blinking lights, and the midway. Everyone in the county would make t...
You know the old adage, 80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the people. Honestly, sometimes that even feels generous. Those of us who have pastored churches know the feeling. There always seems to be more to get done than people willin...
9,000,000,000,000 gallons. That’s how much water dumped onto Houston two nights ago. The number is even higher now, as the rains have not ceased. For an idea of just how much water that is, check out the Washington Post article. It gives an illus...
I am thankful to see the swelling interest by local churches in caring for refugees. Nowadays, I regularly get asked questions about how to begin this vital ministry at your church. Today, I simply wanted to share a resource with you that may help...
In the last week, a flurry of articles have chimed in on the situation in Charlottesville or on the current cultural temperature that it lays bare. I wrote on Monday of how this attitude affected our local missions over 100 years ago. Today, thou...
I have a lot swirling around in my head this morning. I spent this past week compiling a research project and writing an academic article on missionary methods to immigrants around the turn of the nineteenth century. Sounds boring, I know. But if...
For a number of years now the representatives of our foreign missionary societies have been crying with a loud voice for the best talent of America to go into foreign lands. Their cry has been heard, and each year the choicest best-trained youn...
Eyeballs are fascinating. They take in all of this information around us and translate it into a vision that is meaningful. They give us the information we need to see the road ahead and watch out for hazards. They interpret our surroundings and s...
For the Christian, the question is not if we will suffer but when. Of course, that statement is contingent upon the kind of lifestyle we choose to live. Perhaps a better way to say that is the Christian who lives as the Bible tells a Christian to...
“To be Susu is to be Muslim.” If I heard that once while serving in Africa as a missionary, I heard it a dozen times. Religion, culture, and identity are formative forces in people’s lives. These things wind around each other into a tightly braid...
As of 2015, the United States had set one record in immigration, and it may be on pace to break another one. According to the most recent data from Pew research, the United States is now home to over 43.2 million international immigrants. That is...
His name was Kanzo Uchimura. Uchimura was a prominent Christian leader in Japan during the early part of the twentieth century. He was born in Japan during the end of the previous century to a prominent family. He grew up, as many of the Japanese...
I hope I can talk about this without sounding like I have an ax to grind. Fortunately, our organization is in the coaching business, not the funding business, when it comes to church plants. In my previous position, I worked at a seminary. Again, ...
Are you planting a church or a worship service? Some of you may be offended that I even asked that question. Odds are, you will see and agree with the dilemma I propose in this article. Others may not understand the distinction I just made, and t...
I love reading the great missions texts, and Stephen Neill’s A History of Christian Missions is no exception. Today, I want to share a few paragraphs with you from his opening chapter. These words were great encouragement to me and I pray they wou...
I recently ran across a quote I would like to share concerning the significance of global cities in the mission of the church. It is from Jared Looney, who wrote Crossroads of the Nations: While it is unlikely that this status will remain stat...
We have all seen that well-intentioned pastor or speaker on a video in our Facebook jazzed about how this is the biggest moment in the history of the world. The face changes, but the message does not. This is our time, and we must seize it. Carpe ...
“We’re not about making decisions, we’re about making disciples!” It is a common refrain in church services nowadays. And that is the right attitude. After all, making disciples includes “teaching them all I have commanded.” We should be concerne...
A few weeks back, I called attention to the foggy words we often use as Christians to talk about our gospel work and ministry. Today, I want to point out one such phrase. It is real common, nowadays, to talk of “preaching the gospel to yourself.” ...
A weak understanding of sin results in a pale image of the gospel. We think of sin in narrow terms, we Westerners that is. When we talk about sin, we are usually referring to the bad things we do that make us guilty before God. In fact, our langu...
I think back to a day this past summer. It was during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. Those few days were good days for us, but one moment sticks out to me today. The main auditorium was crowded. I was standing to one side, packed ...
February 4, 2004 was a very significant day in the world. It was the day that Facebook was created. Whether you love it or not, Facebook was a catalyst for the online “social media” movement. There are now 1.6 billion active users on Facebook, wh...
Recently I wrote about spiritual gifts and using your gifts to serve the church. Today, I want to discuss a couple of issues with the whole spiritual gifts conversation. Obviously, I do not mean that spiritual gifts are a problem, but if we are n...
Last week, I wrote a piece about the foggy words we use in church that can sidetrack our mission. Sometimes, we say things that sound real nice, even sound important or profound, but have little real-world meaning. At best, these phrases keep us f...
In order for us to engage people in outreach we need to do life with them and be intentional about loving on them. You may have actually heard that statement come off some pastor’s lips in a sermon. But think about it, what does it actually m...
“How can we say, ‘let the nations be glad,’ if we’re not?” A few weeks ago, one of our other pastors at church made that statement during a sermon. Tony was preaching on Psalm 138. He made a really good point. The Great Commission is not a burde...
Eschatology weirds a lot of Christians out, nowadays. For the uninitiated, eschatology is the study of last things. In other words, it is the theology about how the world will end, or what happens when Christ comes back. It is a subject that hist...
Americans love our categories. We love our boxes and labels. Even today, with the postmodern push away from classification, we Western thinkers still organize information by placing “like items” together in taxonomies. Categories can be helpful to...
Yesterday, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina released an explainer video that is just too good not to share. This is the kind of video you need to show in your church. The video discusses the current state of missions in North Americ...
Last week, a friend made mention of this article in her social media, and I felt it was worth sharing. While the news cycle was inundated with shock at the outcome of the presidential election, this little article slipped through at NPR, and it is...
As I wrote in my last post, studying missions is an important part of actually doing missions. There is a cognitive aspect to everything we do. Therefore, what we study about missions affects how we actually do missions. The Bible has a lot to say...
I love shows about strange food. Maybe it is because I love strange food. I like them even more when I can learn something from them, and this upcoming piece by Anthony Bourdain on CNN’s Parts Unknown is all about the radical diversity found in on...
My church has a lot of seminary students, and I hear a certain refrain every two or three weeks in the small groups I oversee. The conversation turns toward evangelism and missions and some well-meaning seminary student will express frustration th...
We replicate what we celebrate. Everyone knows, buried deep in our bones, is a desire to be more and do more of what we praise. Truthfully, the idea is at the heart of the gospel and our purpose as people created to worship. We become what we wor...
A sermon preached at Harmony Hills Baptist Church in Lufkin, TX. The text is Matthew 28:18-20.
Today I just wanted to drop you all a link to a nifty little tool I developed this past week. I am working with an educational organization to produce a learning project for students that teaches them to discover and engage people groups. In the p...
The US Census bureau released new data at the end of September, and I thought it would be good to point out a recent article in St. Louis local news about the data. The article is called, “St. Louis Shows Biggest Gain in Foreign-Born Population of...
The title question may have never crossed your mind, but it should. Trust me, there is biblical precedent for it. In Acts 8, the reader is taken on a fascinating journey with Phillip. Phillip was a believer. In fact, he was named as one of the de...
Leaders are like vegetables, the homegrown variety are almost always better. That may sound simplistic, and in a lot of ways it probably is. But this is a point where the Bible is clear. A large part of the church’s mission in fulfilling the Grea...
Ministry happens in the medium of culture. In fact, all of life does. Some have compared culture to the air we walk through and breath every day. For this reason, we love talking about “engaging culture.” Some question whether we should concern ou...
“The gospel never fits properly within a culture.” That is a quote by Ed Stetzer from a chapter in The Mission of Today’s Church. In the chapter, Stetzer is detailing the plight of Southern Baptist churches in relation to the North American missi...
Adult Americans have a real hard time making friends, at least that is what most recent research claims). There are reasons. Interpersonally speaking, our lifestyle choices have hemmed us in. The shift in America toward single-family housing, the ...
You think back to that time often. Maybe it was a decade ago, maybe a generation ago, or maybe it was just a few years ago. It was an exciting time in the life of your church. The sanctuary was full on a Sunday morning, children were running aroun...
Last week, I shared a simple method for using Google’s free services for neighborhood discovery. Today, I want to extend that idea to the next level. Many churches never consider mapping out their own membership, but they should. Our homes are st...
It is an interesting time when the Huffington Post beats many churches to principles of Christian hospitality, but that is precisely what has happened in a recent article they published called, “99% of Immigrants Feel More Welcome After a Dinner.”...
Every church needs to know the community around them. Many churches today knew their community at one time, but things change. When it comes to communities here in the US, that transition has happened quickly and everywhere. Many (I would guess m...
I am always excited to pass on good resources, and the following video is just that. It is a short testimony of a couple realizing their responsibility to share the gospel with unreached people groups here in the States. The video briefly walks th...
College football season is once again upon us. This week, I am traveling to do some missionary training and last night, I found myself laying in a hotel bed, listening to my team play their opening game on the radio. The Tennessee Volunteers, a to...
Every, single believer should know how to share the gospel. That may sound like an obvious claim, but all it takes is asking around and it soon becomes clear. Many believers claim insecurity is one of the mains reasons they do not proclaim the go...
I have the unique fortune of training a good number of missionaries in my role at the seminary and through the church I pastor. It is a real blessing to be a part of equipping young families and singles to uproot their lives and move for the sake ...
Jesus was the master discipler. Such a statement is so self-evident it is almost silly to make it. Nevertheless, it serves as a reminder that our source of direction concerning discipleship is none other than the master himself. Take for instance,...
When I find helpful resources or articles that speak to the issues of immigration, refugee care, and the local church’s responsibility to the Great Commission among these people, I like to share those. Today, I want to draw your attention to a rec...
Refugee care is an issue Christians should address. I talk about it a lot here on the website, and with due reason. It is important. So, I like to keep it in front of regular readers. We need to be able to speak clearly and winsomely about the imp...
I am starting to dread that first look at Twitter each morning. After all, Twitter is my morning newspaper. It is where I get my headlines, and frankly this last week I have not wanted them. It is one thing when your headlines are filled with the ...
I see it regularly: young church planters who want to move to some other city and plant an exact copy of their sending church. Both in my role at the seminary and as a pastor of a church that sends a number of planting teams, it is not uncommon fo...
“You cannot do the Great Commission without doing the Great Commandment.” We say that a lot nowadays, and I do believe it is true. The premise is as follows. The Great Commission, or the call to make disciples of all nations stands at the very ce...
I am excited about today’s post. Over the course of the Peoples Next Door project, we have spent a lot of time thinking through people group discovery and engagement as well as helping equip local churches for that end. Today, I get to announce a ...
If you are familiar with international missions strategy, then you have probably heard people talk about entry and exit strategies. Most good international missions has both an entry strategy, a means of starting work in a new area or with a new p...
I wrote this post right after the SBC annual meeting in St. Louis, two years ago. I couldn’t help but return to it today. The events of the last couple of days are weighing heavy on my heart, and I feel these words are more true now than ever bef...
Monday, I ran a guest post by Trevor King on the importance of covenant membership, and I highly recommend you read it here. In it, Trevor makes a compelling claim about the biblical nature of a covenant membership process for local churches, and ...
If you have ever preached on a short-term mission trip, then you know the feeling. You are up front, a bunch of unfamiliar faces staring back at you. Next to you stands your interpreter, awaiting your words so he or she can translate them into th...
The term missional is overused. It happens a lot with new words that are initially helpful. We see the word as clearly describing some admirable trait and we adopt the word, but the meaning starts to expand. People continue placing it as a label ...
I get this question a lot, so I thought it fitting to address it in a post. With the remarkable diversity we find around ourselves today, we can no longer assume we understand someone’s religious background. This is obvious when we talk about dis...
I was recently talking to a student deploying to the field for missionary service, and she informed me she was the only person to ever serve as a missionary from her Baptist association back at home. Now, she’s from the South where there are many ...
All analogies break down, so bear with me here. But I want to share this one with you, because I think it does a good job of answering why your area (and mine) needs new churches. A church is, in some ways, like a tree. Churches have a life cycle...
This morning while I was doing some research, I stumbled across a little piece of tongue-and-cheek blog fodder from the Houstonia titled, The Houstonia Step-By-Step Guide to Gentrification. It’s pretty funny and does a great job tracking the devel...
I initially planned to post this Friday but that was Good Friday, so you’re getting it today. Ok, let’s recap. The last couple of posts have focused on evangelistic Bible storying as a way to start new small groups at your church through convers...
Monday, I proposed evangelistic Bible storying as a way to start new small groups at your church through conversion. Bible storying provides the benefit of worldview development as the study progresses from week to week. This, of course, is an exc...
It has been a few weeks since I posted on the benefits of Bible storying, so it seemed high time to do it again. If you cannot tell, I am a firm believer in using a narrative/ story approach in Bible study. I saw the great benefit of unpacking bib...
The following is a guest piece by Meredith Cooper on the challenge and necessity of hospitality in gospel ministry. Its practical and I think most of us can relate to the scenarios she discusses below. Hospitality is a word I hear a lot in conjun...
[vimeo 157340906 w=800 h=440] Eric Mason - Seeing Through the Lens of the End - Revelation 7:9-14 from Southeastern Seminary on Vimeo. I love our chapel services at Southeastern. Every semester, we have the opportunity to hear from some of the m...
A little over 200 years ago, William Carey wrote an essay that changed Christianity. It was called, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. It had a convoluted title, but it made some rea...
Now that we have rounded the corner on a new year, I thought it good to grab some fresh factoids about the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe. Of course, the situation over there will not be back to “normal” for a long time, as mill...
Cities today are big places. Let me put that into perspective. In the first century (when Paul was walking around), the biggest city in the world was supposedly Rome and it had… wait for it… 450,000 people.* The shining beacon of urban accomplishm...
In previous posts, we’ve talked about the need to be proactive instead of reactive concerning missions sending from your church. This means working in advance to cast vision, assess, and equip people from your own church to be international missio...
A talk given at Southeastern's GO Conference in 2016 on the rise of diaspora missions.
It has been five years now, but I still remember how it felt. It happened more than once while I served in West Africa as a missionary, but it always caught me off guard. I would be working out in the bush, a long long way from anyone that could, ...
I recently picked up a book by the late, great missiologist Lesslie Newbigin, entitled Truth and Authority in Modernity. In the work, he tries to untangle the often confusing conversation concerning the issues of authority in worldview. I do not...
Periodically, I post articles written by others. The following is a guest post that may serve as a good dose of medicine if you find the church to be a little overwhelming at times. Enjoy! By: Meredith Cook If you register “I” on the spectrum of...
In just a few hours I will be hitting the road for Tennessee. This morning, the local news in Raleigh said the security line at the airport was so long it went outside the building and around the corner. It is Christmastime, and that means it is t...
Tomorrow, I am flying to the Chicago area for a leadership meeting concerning an upcoming summit on refugees. The GC2 summit, as they are calling it, will hopefully provide equipping to Evangelicals so we can have a proper response to the curren...
A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal launched a fascinating multimedia piece call Demographic Destiny. The site analyzes demographic research and visualizes the information in stunning project of what life will be like as we approach 2050. Th...
Over at Urban Mango, Lori McDaniel recently posted a helpful article on loving foreigners. We spend a lot of time talking about that same issue here on this blog, so I thought I would bring her post to your attention and chime in with a few though...
I was initially going to apologize to Joshua Harris for stealing the title from his previous book, but after I wrote this post I discovered he had written a whole book on this topic as well. Click here to get a copy of his book, Stop Dating the...
We both know the feeling. That anxiety you get when you walk through the door right after work and immediately fly into cleaning your house. At some point, you thought it would be a good idea to invite them over for dinner. But now, in the moment,...
If you are a pastor or ministry leader, then this post is for you. New churches in your town are not a bad thing… even the one down the street. I imagine you know that feeling. I am a pastor myself, and honestly, I have had it too. You are drivin...
Periodically on the blog, I dig back into the archives and resurrect old posts from years gone. Today, I’m recalling a post from 2012 that reflects on a trip to New York City. This post deals with loneliness, and I believe it outlines some helpf...
I have heard the gospel countless times, thousands of times. I imagine you have too. Most of the people who read this blog already claim to be believers. I typically write to the choir here. More than hear it, I have spoken the gospel countle...
David Roberts, a blogger at Vox.com recently wrote an article titled, “How our housing choices make adult friendships more difficult.” For a secular piece, Roberts is rather prophetic in his tone about the shape of society and its relationship wit...
This blog is actually several years older than its most recent launch as The Peoples Next Door. I initially started this blog when I was serving in West Africa, and this week I began digging through the archives. Back in 2012, I wrote a piece t...
Let me start by saying this is an oversimplification. Culture and worldview are complicated topics. Are they the same thing? Are they distinct? Search five textbooks and you will get five different answers and five different definitions. In fac...
I was a missionary in West Africa. By the time I left that continent, I understood (to a decent degree) the culture, worldview, and language of the people I was engaging. I could carry on conversations, share the gospel, even teach Bible studies. ...
Culture runs deep. In fact, culture runs deeper than most ever realize. When we think about culture, we typically think about dress and food, dancing and art, language and festivals. To be certain, these are all cultural activities. Culture is no...
Sometimes, we do not celebrate the most important things. It is like celebrating the kid who got the congeniality award instead of winning the pageant. Don’t get me wrong. We should give Miss Congeniality a pat on the back, but winning the congen...
Today I wanted to chime in on another good post by Justin Long. As an aside, if you are interested in missions and church planting, you need to follow Justin. You can find his blog here, and his Twitter account here. Justin recently posted a sh...
[caption id=”attachment_1085” align=”alignright” width=”341”] Marie helps mobilize others inside her church to discover and engage people groups.[/caption] The next interview in our series is a team leader for people group engagement in a local c...
I talk a lot about people group communities or people group pockets forming in cities here in the US. In short, as migration continues around the US, many of these people groups moving to here will find a way to locate in the same areas. They form...
I can remember Monday night visitation at church. We would all meet up at the church building to pair up and take any visitor cards from the Sunday before and go visit the new families and share the gospel with them. In addition, it was standard ...
Ashley Scarbrough with e3 Partners has a good write up concerning international people group work here in the US. She wrote the piece back in March, but I just stumbled across it recently. Ashley points out several different ways to find and inte...
As a means of helping people see the various roles involved in people group discovery and engagement, I plan to periodically interview practitioners. These people will come from a variety of places (state conventions, sending agencies, research ...
“In the News” is a series where I highlight research and various articles from around the internet to showcase the shifts of missiological significance. If you read the last article, you saw that the Brookings institute had noted the shift of int...
I love finding good, brief articles like this recent post by Justin Long concerning people group work in the US. Justin is actually writing as a response to an article by JD Payne on the topic. Now, I want to highlight Justin’s post. The chain c...
A Hindu temple just outside of Raleigh, NC. I don’t know anything about fill-in-the-blank culture! Can I even do this without some level of cultural expertise? This is perhaps the most frequent question when I share about reaching int...
They say it doesn’t exist, but I’ve been there. As a matter of fact, I feel like I’m there now. While writing these words, I stare out across a piece of glass the locals call the Marmara Denizi (Sea of Marmara). I watch the sun set in a sky so ...
The message of the kingdom is the mission of the church. Over the last three posts, I have discussed the significance of the kingdom of God, pointed out some common misconceptions, and provided a rough description of this kingdom. The kingdom has...
We were supposed to be stewards. That is why we were created. In the very beginning, back when God made everything out of nothing, the pinnacle of that creation was man. Man was made in his image and was to rule in his stead. In essence we were s...
If you do not know what you are fighting for, you are bound to make mistakes. In the last post, I talked about the kingdom of God (or the kingdom of heaven, as the terms are interchangeable in the Bible). The term gets thrown around a lot. We Chr...
Jesus is concerned about his kingdom. It is pretty easy to agree with that statement if you read the gospel account of Matthew. The kingdom of heaven is possibly the most prevalent theme in the book, and is most often recorded off the lips of Jes...
While reading a book for one of my classes, I ran across a statement that stuck with me. The book contained a diatribe about things that characterize our modern worldview. In the middle of the rant, the author made that statement that people in ou...
“How far is too far?” If you have ever worked with a youth group, that question is not new to you. For that matter, if you were ever in a youth group, that question probably crossed your lips, or at least your mind. And that question applies to ...
People dislike the church. Not everyone, but enough people for me to write this post. And I am not talking about people who do not claim to be a part of a church. I do not expect people who are not Christians to be satisfied with the church....
At least, that is what they say. It has been over a month since my last post. As best I can recollect, that is my longest stretch of inactivity in almost two years, and it has been really hard to start back. As a matter of fact, many times I sat ...
“A shepherd should smell like his sheep.” If you think about the above statement, it seems like common sense. Of course a shepherd would smell like sheep. After all, it is his job to spend his time around sheep. It is his job to follow sheep, her...
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” At least, that is what people say. And for the record, it is probably a true piece of conventional wisdom. This reality has gained new significance to me as of late, as it has deep significance to the ...
The basic American right to privacy. It is a thing, right? Most people do not realize a “right to privacy” is not explicitly stated anywhere in the constitution. However, despite the absence of those words from the document, our country (at lea...
If you are questioning man’s depravity lately, might I suggest you cut on your television. This weekend, I visited a friend in Richmond and was sitting on his couch before church. The television was on the National Geographic channel, and I notic...
This post is a continuation from a previous post. For the whole story, read On debating an imam. Christianity is not about a religion, or a philosophy, or a worldview; it is about a person. For centuries men have been beaten, persecuted, tortu...
This post is a continuation from a previous post. For the whole story, read On debating an imam. “How many copies of the Bible do you own?” asked the imam. It was a question for which I had no definite answer. “Perhaps a dozen,” I thought to ...
Life has a way of putting people in weird situations. It is that awkward moment when you realize you are sitting in the wrong classroom on the first day of school, or perhaps, it is that instance when your boss randomly asks for your opinion abou...
The Gospels are filled with some crazy stories. In today’s skeptical world, many are too “sophisticated” to believe the fantastical events presented in the gospel story. The stories of Christ healing the sick, casting out evil spirits, and raisin...
“The only thing good about 29 is the fact that it is not 30.” At least, that is what I said on this day last year. You may want to read that post first. It is called Confessions of a 29-year-old. It is funny. For years, 30 was that age off in the...
Have you ever wondered if Paul wanted to be a missionary? Perhaps he came to the conclusion that it would be a fun thing to do, an exciting life to live. If that is the case, the story soon tells us it was not much fun. Paul was jailed and regular...
We are creatures of habit. How do I know? Because I am currently sitting in Starbucks typing a blog post on my iPad. The exact same thing I was doing last Sunday, and the Sunday before that, and the Sunday before that. It appears, this is my rou...
Today I’m posting another one from the archives. I wrote this one back in 2012. I find it ironically fitting, considering the current state of the presidential race and a lot of the rhetoric floating around in the political arena right now. I hope...
Life sucks sometimes. We all know it is true. You get passed up for a promotion, or perhaps you get fired. Someone in your family becomes terribly sick, or perhaps you do. You find out the girl of your dreams does not feel the same way about you,...
Having just moved to a new place, I am still trying to find my way around. Part of that process, at least for me, is learning all the nooks and crannies. It is discovering the little places, like a park or a trail, that provide moments of escape f...
This post is more of a question than an answer. It is curiosity not advice, and I know that even bringing this issue up will bring scrutiny on me from others. My hope is that in raising my questions and my lack of understanding we can dialogue tow...
Last Thursday I saw mummies. Not the little plastic ones that are starting to show up in everyone’s yard because Halloween is around the corner, no, these were real, live mummies. They were life-size, danced around and played brass instruments. ...
An ellipsis, a literary term, is the notation of an omission of superfluous information. It is the set of three dots put between two pieces of significant information to show that the stuff in between was not worth writing. Life can feel like an ...
When you crack a new book for the first time, as you leaf through the first two or three pages, you will usually notice a page with just a sentence or two nestled right into the center of it. On it, you will find someone’s name. It will not be the...
Great adventures need great transportation, and you, 15-passenger church van, taught youth groups everywhere what it meant to ride in style. Jason and his team of heroes had the Argo, the X-Men had their Blackbird, the A-Team had Baracus and his ...
I was in high school when I saw my first robo-baby. This probably dates me, but at the time, it was some new attempt at teaching girls in home economics about caring for a baby. (If you are older than me, you probably remember girls carrying an e...
In war, a soldier must wear his armor. In the throws of battle, one must be able to identify friend from foe. Enter the Christian t-shirt. Blasting out the message of faith in full silk-screen style, you were masterpieces of poly-cotton blend ar...
I saw you on Monday. I was in the cafeteria eating spaghetti with corn, and like an angel, you floated into the room, you and your posse of six other girls. It was love at first bite. As you stood in the lunch line, shining with radiant beauty, I ...
If you are perhaps thinking, “Wait, didn’t he give us the Aha moment from the cow training thing like two days ago?” then you feel the same way I did. This lesson was a double whammy. Right when I thought this little visual demonstration had pro...
I like Aha moments. Aha moments are those little points in time when the proverbial light bulb goes off and some previously known factoid gains new, deeper meaning. What first existed merely as meaningless trivia sprouts and grows into a three di...
Exploding onto the scene with trombones blazing, you gave youth group members everywhere a new way to stick out. If wallet chains and ringer tees with stupid logos were not enough, you added fuel to the “I am weird” fire. Your sound was reminiscen...
Keep in mind, I am an only child. As a child, my birthdays were a big deal. I can remember lamenting the fact that birthdays only came once a year. It and Christmas were the two events that marked my year. My parents (being of the over-generous,...
_If you are too much older than I am, this post will probably seem absurd to you. If you are too much younger than I am, this will not even make sense. _But if you who remember being excited about dc Talk’s first album and upset about their las...
Ever since I can remember being old enough to have the slightest interest in government and politics, the State of the Union address has been one of those moments in the national timeline I felt obligated to watch. It is like election night or the...
Do you ever have those moments where, like a line of dominoes, a series of completely unrelated events cascade into a continually shaping idea? (I would call it an epiphany, but that would be just a bit pretentious I suppose.) One strange thought ...
Thanksgiving is a peculiar holiday. As with most special days, it seems to be far less about the event we are supposed to remember than the odd traditions that have grown up around it. The pilgrims survived the harsh conditions of settling in the ...
This is the last day of my seminar, and today I wanted to share one final post from the archives before I get back to writing. This one is from 2010, and shares a fundamental shift in my thinking about spiritual gifts. A couple of months ago, I r...
Ephesus was kind of a big deal. Think of it as the “New York” of ancient Asia Minor. With a population of 400,000 people during the first century AD, it was the second largest city in the world after Rome. It was the political and economic center,...
The Romans had chariots, the cowboys in the Wild West had their horses, the modern American has the mid-sized sedan (or oversized SUV for some) and West Africans have the “bush taxi.” Labeled the bush taxi more for where it goes than its appearanc...
If ever there was a strategy that would reach the world for Christ, it must be the church sign. Crowning the curb of church properties across America, these little, often backlit, beacons of truth shine out to a lost world. If am not mistaken (and...
I have a confession. Pulling water is not one of my spiritual gifts. For those of you too pampered to have ever experienced this, “pulling water” is the euphemism applied to dragging buckets of water up a rope and out of a 50ft-deep well. Pulling...
Why do we overcomplicate things? Is it part of human nature, possibly a result of the fall? Take for instance that master of ingenuity, Wile E. Coyote. There are few things in life that bring me as much happiness as laughing at his misery. In his ...
There are a lot of things in life that we want to make sure we do not misuse. For instance, those little signs that have replaced the words “Men” and “Women” on most public bathrooms are important. Another example is the inappropriate way the refe...
Communication is an interesting process. The transmission of information is a goal that is seldom achieved with the precision that was initially intended. For instance, I imagine most of you have participated in a “chain story” at some point. Bein...
How do you know God? For that matter, how do you know anything about God? Maybe it was your parents that first introduced you to this idea that there was some big something out there in charge of everything. Maybe it was a Sunday School teacher or...
This week, I am in seminars all day for my PhD, so I’m revisiting some old posts from my time in Africa. This post was written back in 2010 about a celebration I attended while serving as a missionary. One of the neatest aspects of my time h...
I wrote this piece while serving in Africa as a missionary. At the time, I was living in a small village far away from city life. The observations made in my time there profoundly shaped how I understand the Bible. I pray this one does the same fo...
Here is a journal entry from last November, after I had started living out in the bush to do my language study. I thought this would be a good one to share. Well, boredom set in yesterday. All seemed well as the first two or three days moved by. ...
I am headed back out to the bush for a while, so I thought I would leave you guys with something that has recently been on my mind. I spent several days this past week working with a short-term team from the States. It was a real blessing, and God...
I guess it was only a matter of time before I got the itch to blog. After all, I do have a bit of free time here, and God is teaching me a whole lot so far through this process. So, for all of the people who are contacting me for updates and wanti...
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