What If Jesus Wanted to Buy Your Car?

What If Jesus Wanted to Buy Your Car?

The whole thing caught me off guard. We recently bought a “new to us” car. Rather than trade in our old car at the dealership, I decided to sell it on my own. I’ve done this a few times now and it’s always turned out well.   Per usual, after a deep clean and...
How to Pray When You’ve Never Heard From God

How to Pray When You’ve Never Heard From God

“I’ve never heard or felt anything when I pray. It’s like I’m talking to myself.” The words tumbled out in a recent conversation that suddenly felt like a confession. All my friend wants is a real relationship with God, one he can feel that involves a two-way...
Trusting in the Slow Work of God

Trusting in the Slow Work of God

Have you ever enjoyed waiting? Me neither. I think to myself, “I don’t have time for this. I have stuff to do!” My internal clock seems perpetually set to “hurry.” But I’ve noticed in more recent years that God doesn’t have that setting. God’s setting is far slower,...
For Those Who Over Do – Like Me

For Those Who Over Do – Like Me

Be. Be still. Be With. Be in. It was the counsel my spiritual director gave as I started a 5-day silent retreat a while back. After an excessively busy season provoked by unprecedented change, he could see God was calling me to stillness. “When we get more connected...
How to Be Free Indeed

How to Be Free Indeed

Something in every human heart yearns to be free. Deep down, we desire to unlock the door, break the shackles and walk unencumbered into a limitless future. We don’t want structures or organizations or authority figures to tell us what we can and can’t do. We want...
What Is Love?

What Is Love?

Some children were asked, “What is love?” One little girl answered, “Love is when your mommy reads you a bedtime story. True love is when she doesn’t skip any pages.” A few summers ago I took a youth group on a mission trip to Ashland,...
Slowing Down to Save Your Soul

Slowing Down to Save Your Soul

The apostles (Jesus’ disciples who had been sent out to teach and heal) gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going…they did not even have a chance to eat. Mark 6:30-31 How would you like...
7 Ways Your Church Can be Revived

7 Ways Your Church Can be Revived

It was like a scene from a movie. As a director of new church development, I went to a church that had closed several months before. A couple of colleagues and I were there to assess the building and its potential for launching a new congregation. None of us were...