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Leaders Who are Easy to Follow
I want to be a leader who is easy to follow, so I’ve been paying attention lately to those who seem to model this really well. We should not have an unhealthy desire to please everyone, but we should...
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The Price We Pay for Exciting
Have you ever sat and watched an entire baseball game on TV? I mean, from the first pitch to the last out? Really? Baseball on TV is boring. There, I said it. I mean it, too. I will not apologize. I...
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Making Extraordinary Use of Ordinary Time
For those who lead the local church, summer has finally arrived, bringing with it some challenges and opportunities. The traditional church calendar calls this Ordinary Time, the period between Easter...
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Celebrate, Tolerate or Obliterate
Everyone on our team is up to something. They are either celebrating, tolerating or obliterating the values that are meant to direct our steps. These are the same values that were discussed and...
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The Batteries of Our Lives
All of us have internal batteries that determine how much energy or effort we have to expend on the matters of life. When these batteries are charged, we can take on multiple tasks and still have...
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Some Truths about Sermons, Preaching and Preachers
You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. Acts 20:20 Since Christianity started, there have been men and...
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Some Thoughts on Politicians and How to Pray for Them
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all...
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A Prayer to Know Jesus is Near
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Matthew 14:14 For 49 years, I have been a heart patient and it seems as normal to me as walking or sleeping....
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Four Ways to Build Trust on Your Team
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:6-7 For the past few weeks, I’ve undergone two separate...
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Motion vs. Momentum
As a pastor, there is no busier weekend than the one we just completed, a weekend filled to the brim with Good Friday and multiple Sunday gatherings to celebrate the resurrection. There was a lot of...
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Wrestling with Negative Self-Talk
Throughout my day I ask myself a question as often as possible in the hope of keeping negative agreements at bay. This question has kept me out of the ditch on more occasions than I can count and is...
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Hearing God Despite the Distractions
My new book, Speak Life, releases this September. Here is a brief excerpt about distractions that hinder our ability to hear God. At last check, you and I are receiving upwards of five thousand...
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Slimed by Gossip
This is a brief excerpt from my new book, Speak Life, which releases in September. This part of the book tackles the topic of gossip. Engaging in gossip is not altogether different from my experience...
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The Immigrants I Know
“The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow.” Psalm 146:9 I gathered with hundreds of people to worship and pray on a Wednesday night not long ago. Only a handful of us...
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When Leaders Gather
In just a few weeks, we will host our annual New Life Leader’s Conference. Our entire team looks forward to this time every year because it is a chance to have conversations and learn from some of the...
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Why Did I Write Another Book?
Words are central in the story of God as told to us in the Scriptures. God spoke and the world was created. God spoke to Abraham and he ventured off to the Promised Land, full of faith, hope and fear....
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Speak Life Over Your Kids
This is a repost from a blog I wrote a few years ago, but it reminded me why I wrote the book, Speak Life “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it, will eat its fruit.”...
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The Team that Teaches with Me
One of the great joys I have as pastor is to teach the sacred Scriptures each week to my congregation. I spend hours praying and studying, hoping that the message on Sunday encourages the saints,...
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Speak Life Devotional from Ephesians 4
The most concentrated advice on how to communicate well shows up in Ephesians 4. We are told there to “put off falsehood and speak truthfully . . . for we are all members of one body” (v. 25), and we...
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Speak Life Devotional from Luke 4
In Luke 4, after we read of Jesus’s temptations in the wilderness, we see him returning to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit” (v. 14). News about him began spreading throughout the countryside. He...
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