Journey
"The year before I graduated from seminary, I lost my faith in God." That's how Brian Jones begins his new book, Second Guessing God: Hanging On When You Can't See His Plan. If you're looking for a book that helps you deal
Community
If you're interested in spiritual awakening -- revival -- like I am, you've read the accounts of The Great Awakenings in America. Preachers, famous and unknown, fanned out across America preaching in fields and street corners, in towns and cities, proclaiming salvation in the name of
Journey
Read my fellow-blogger, Holly Dolezalek's post, And, some crankiness. Holly is a self-described agnostic who blogs for Outreach magazine, keeping us real with her take on all this church stuff we talk about so much. In her post, Holly responds to Lee Strobel's article, Short-changing the
Community
This past week was difficult for our community. I live in Chatham, Virginia, about 2-hours from Blacksburg and Virginia Tech, so we were obviously affected by that tragedy. But, on the Saturday before the VT tragedy, our town doctor died suddenly and unexpectedly. Dr. Thompson was a member of our
Community
I have tried several times this week to write about the tragedy at Virginia Tech, but I could not. Here is the sermon I am preaching tomorrow. My prayer is that it will help. Finding God in the Midst of Tragedy John 21:1-19 Suppose everything we thought and believed
Journey
Maybe I'm an oddball, but today's the Monday after Easter, and I'm a little depressed. Okay, maybe depressed is too clinical, but I feel like somebody let the air out of my tires, spiritually-speaking. Not that Easter Sunday wasn't good -- it
Journey
1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they
Journey
"It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
Community
I've put up two new categories -- "Sermon Illustrations" and "Missional Church." I love good stories and that's what "Sermon Illustrations" is -- good stories you can use in sermons or your blogs, or wherever. Most of the stories are
Journey
Several years ago, I pastored a church in a suburb of Atlanta. We had been there four years, when I accepted the call of a church in North Carolina. I resigned from the Atlanta church, giving them notice, and during the following weeks, we said our goodbyes to some of
Journey
Ever wonder why God put you in a small church when your old seminary pals are at First Big Church? And when you see them at a convention or seminar, they ask you, "How's the church going?" in their sympathetic, funeral-home voice, like someone just died.
Congregation
"Jesus did not say, 'I will speak true worlds to you' or 'I will tell you about the truth;' he claimed to embody truth in his person. To those who wished to know the truth, Jesus did not offer propositions to be tested by logic