forgiveness
I preached from Mark 1:29-39, last Sunday, and chose to address the issue of healing. The 5 questions that I think we all ask about healing are: 1. Why does illness and suffering exist? 2. Why did Jesus heal? 3. Does God still heal today? 4. Why isn'
Pastoral Care
Even though we are in the midst of a Christian publishing boom, writers often overlook their most obvious audience: their own congregations. I hate to break this news to all of us aspiring writers, but most of us are not going to write the next Purpose-Driven Life, or Love Wins,
Culture
In keeping with end of the year predictions, here are mine. Of course, several years ago I predicted $5 per gallon gas. Thankfully, we never got to that point. But in light of my obvious fallibility I’m framing my prognostications in the familiar “what’s in and what’s
Books
Two bound copies of my dissertation arrived today. The title is The Reconciling Community: The Missional Mending of Spiritual and Social Relationships Through Local Church Ministry. I lived with writing this for almost two years, so it is very gratifying to see it done, bound, and approved. Still waiting for
Pastoral Care
With my almost 3-week hospital stay behind me, I realized there are several things I learned from the experience. Here are five of them: 1. People who are in the hospital are really sick. You might think that would be obvious, but when I say sick, I mean really sick.
Pastoral Care
We had a great day on Easter Sunday! Les Adams led the service, Don Reagan read scripture, Eleanor Haskins presented the children's sermon, others prayed, Charlotte was amazing on the organ, and the choir outdid themselves on Resurrection Sunday. Thanks to our great lay leaders, all I had
evangelism
Wednesday I head off to San Diego for my fourth year at the National Outreach Convention, known affectionately as NOC. I hope you'll be there for all of the workshops, discussion forums, worship sessions, major speakers, and more. One of the really great things about NOC is the
Congregation
Years ago, LifeWay's focus on pastoral ministry was contained in three words -- lead, care, proclaim. Lead included church administration with its committee meetings, planning sessions, and member training. Care involved pastoral care of the congregation, and the pastor's training of and relationship with caregivers such
Culture
Seth Godin asks How long before you run out of talking points? His point is that those who "live into" rather than just "talk about" (my words, not Godin's) what they espouse are the real deal. Then he says, There's a lot
Congregation
You need to read The Future of Evangelicalism: A Conversation With Rick Warren over at The Pew Forum. It's long, and covers a lot of territory, but in it Rick talks about how megachurches do the small church thing (my words, not his). Here's a quick
Outreach
This fall I'm leading a breakout session at NOC2010 titled, Outreach in the Crises of Life. I'm convinced that care and ministry during life's crises is not only a great thing to do, but the most overlooked outreach opportunity churches have. Crisis ministry focuses
Pastoral Care
Debbie commented today, after looking at all the books on my desk, "Do you know you have 31 books on forgiveness?" Actually, I didn't but she's pretty close. I'm working on a writing project about forgiveness. In the process, I am trying