Belief forms the framework of a life built on Jesus. Building on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, the windows, doors, and walls of a Christian life are the doctrines that are entrusted to us. We learn, accept, and trust in God who gives them to us. Just as the apostles proclaimed salvation through Jesus, […]
Read More »Ten years ago, our church in Knoxville hosted approximately 30 evacuees from the Gulf Coast. Earlier in the week, like many other helpless Americans, we wanted to do something. Jay Hogewood, who was then pastor of University Baptist in Baton Rouge, had created a makeshift relief warehouse for evacuees in his area. I contacted him, […]
Read More »While on vacation in Colorado, we rafted down the Colorado River with another family from Illinois. Scott, a guide that sounded like “Mater” from the Disney movie Cars, prepared us for the trip. We practiced how to rescue someone from the water. If anyone went overboard, we were to grab him by the top of […]
Read More »In the Christian life, how do you measure a fully surrendered life to Jesus? It’s not based on the amount of times you attend church, go on a mission trip, or even the amount of money you give. Those things are all very important. Believe me, I love to see people in worship on a […]
Read More »When I was in seminary, I realized I needed glasses. My eyesight wasn’t terrible; in fact, after I started wearing glasses, my vision improved slightly—much to the delight of my optometrist. But each year, I return to the eye doctor expecting that my vision needs to be corrected again. As much as we hate to […]
Read More »On Sunday, August 2, I shared the five goals of our 2020 vision. On August 26, I’ll present the full details of our proposal. We’ll be throwing around a lot of terms and concepts that night, and I want to define a few of the words we’ll be using in our proposal. Assessment- an online […]
Read More »We just returned from a week without screens. Our family traveled to a YMCA camp in Estes Park, Colorado without phones, kindles, ipads, televisions, and music. We disconnected social media, email, news and trusted that life would go on without us. We left emergency numbers with those who could find us, and we had the […]
Read More »Everyone has a model of the way a church should work. As Peter Senge writes, mental models are deeply held images of life that shape the way we think, believe, and behave. Often we are not even aware of the effects they have on our behavior, but these models are expressed in our language, actions, […]
Read More »In my previous three posts, we’ve been reflecting on Jesus’ reign in the Gospel of Mark. As he takes control, he the world changes and so do we. We respond with courageous faith, and we also uncover barriers to that faith in our lives. Because of Jesus’ great mercy and love in our lives, things […]
Read More »We just returned from a great weekend in Sarasota watching Parker swim in the Florida Age Group Championships. Swimming, like many other sports, has its own little world of customs, expectations, and rules. If you want to swim, you do what the officials and coaches say. Otherwise, you’re disqualified. If you follow the rules, you […]
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