Recent Articles

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Featured image for “The House of Christmas”
December 19, 2023

The House of Christmas

There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; In the place where she was homeless All men are at home. The crazy stable close at hand, With shaking timber and shifting sand, Grew a stronger thing ...
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Featured image for “Advent 4 – love might be reborn and rekindled”
December 18, 2023

Advent 4 – love might be reborn and rekindled

There is a powerful scene in Herman Melville’s great epic, Moby Dick, where Captain Ahab stands peg-legged on the deck of the Pequod during a violent storm (chapter 119). His obsession with the White Whale has carried the craft and ...
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Featured image for “Advent 3 – We see the Light and clap our hands”
December 17, 2023

Advent 3 – We see the Light and clap our hands

Dance in the Desert. Madeleine L’Engle’s book is too dark for children, too simple for adults, too deep for theologians, and just right for everyone. She tells of a young couple on a desert journey through wilderness in a rough ...
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Featured image for “Advent 2 – One fellow tells of his work as a hospital volunteer”
December 8, 2023

Advent 2 – One fellow tells of his work as a hospital volunteer

One fellow tells of his work as a hospital volunteer. He couldn’t believe the pain and suffering he saw there. Burn victims. Deformities. Terminal cancer. He watched the little ones cry. Some were so lonely: their parents couldn’t take the ...
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Featured image for “Advent 1 – King Ahaz had a problem”
November 28, 2023

Advent 1 – King Ahaz had a problem

First Sunday in Advent: King Ahaz had a problem. His country was small, and was about to be gobbled up by war-hungry Assyria, the bully on the block. Every day the news was the same: no hope; no win; no ...
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Featured image for “The Death of Hope Part 4 The Remixed”
November 17, 2023

The Death of Hope Part 4 The Remixed

By and large, today’s new cults of and for the Remixed are what I will call “intuitional religions.” By this, I mean that their sense of meaning is based in narratives that simultaneously reject clear-cut creedal metaphysical doctrines and institutional ...
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Featured image for “The Death of Hope Part 3 Strange Rites”
October 3, 2023

The Death of Hope Part 3 Strange Rites

I believe in God. I’m not a religious fanatic. I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice … It’s just trying to love ...
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Featured image for “The Death of Hope (Part 2)”
September 28, 2023

The Death of Hope (Part 2)

If there is no hope, there is no future.  In his 1992 novel The Children of Men (Made into a movie of the same name in 2006), P.D. James tells of a future where no children are born. James insists ...
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Featured image for “The Death of Hope (Part 1)”
September 27, 2023

The Death of Hope (Part 1)

“…there’s an extraordinary wave of depression and anxiety in teens and adults, for example. There was one analysis that said that 44 percent of American 8th, 10th, and 12th graders report feeling, at times, that, quote, ‘my life is not ...
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Featured image for “Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places”
January 10, 2023

Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places

What do you love? What does your congregation love? These are essential questions to dig into because St. Augustine states, “Wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me.” Putting it another way, our congregations do what they love to ...
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Featured image for “9 things your Pastor wished you knew about but can’t say out loud”
December 22, 2022

9 things your Pastor wished you knew about but can’t say out loud

An ice storm on Saturday night! Everything was cancelled. Roads were closed and powerlines down. Chad was the new pastor at Creekside Church. In fact, he was new to ministry leadership. His ordination service in this rural congregation happened only ...
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Featured image for “7 myths uncovered about ministry training”
December 5, 2022

7 myths uncovered about ministry training

It was the first time Caitlin hosted the holiday dinner for her family. 27 people would be at the tables, 19 at the main, and 8 at the “Kid’s Table.” Two babies would be held or sleeping in carrying baskets. ...
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Featured image for “Preaching Jitters”
December 1, 2022

Preaching Jitters

Chris was called to ministry. He knew it. He felt it. He prayed about it. But before he could be credentialed as a pastor, Chris had to channel his passionate confidence through several years of seminary training. Bible classes were ...
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Featured image for “Deep and Wide”
July 15, 2022

Deep and Wide

“Deep and Wide.” It’s the name of a children’s song and also the title of a book by Andy Stanley. For the song, click here. Stanley’s book, Deep and Wide, is the story of his personal faith and ministry journey, as well as ...
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Featured image for “Advice I would give my first-year ministry self”
June 26, 2022

Advice I would give my first-year ministry self

Written by Laura Osborne God has a plan for your life and it may not match up with your plan. My tenure in ministry is 15 years long now and running. It isn’t the track I thought it would have ...
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Featured image for “3 Ways To Become A Healthier Church Leader Right Now”
June 23, 2022

3 Ways To Become A Healthier Church Leader Right Now

If you spend any amount of time in a rhythm of Church Leadership, your calendar is probably full of meetings, your whiteboard is full of strategies, and your cup of inspiration is likely running empty —you are busy. In fact, ...
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Featured image for “The Most Important Work In Church Planting”
June 21, 2022

The Most Important Work In Church Planting

When they found him beside the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” This was Jesus’s reply. “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “You aren’t looking for me because you saw signs, but because ...
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Featured image for “Dealing with Discouragement”
May 3, 2022

Dealing with Discouragement

When in juxtaposition to one another, the songs “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “Singin’ in the Rain” reflect the extremes of our emotions. Karen Carpenter sings, “Hangin’ around, nothing to do but frown. Rainy Days and Mondays always get me ...
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Featured image for “Four Reasons I Love Church Planting”
April 21, 2022

Four Reasons I Love Church Planting

Four Reasons I Love Church Planting Years after each of them went through the great pain of losing their spouses, a curmudgeonly widower and a feisty widow were coaxed toward marriage by well-meaning friends. The wedding was a simple family ...
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Featured image for “Want To Be A Story Teller? Make diversity your goal, not videos.”
April 20, 2022

Want To Be A Story Teller? Make diversity your goal, not videos.

Thousands of years ago, storytelling was a passageway into humanity; the craft of making images appear in the mind of your audience gathered around a fire was practically magic. Then, technology hurdled into the scene and, by and large, we ...
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Featured image for “Take it slow – a new anthem for outreach”
April 19, 2022

Take it slow – a new anthem for outreach

I always try to pay attention to what’s happening in popular culture. Rhythms and reviews tend to either drive the thoughts and feelings of a generation, or at least reflect it.  Although not comprehensive, it still helps to understand the ...
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Featured image for “Taming the Beasts”
March 6, 2022

Taming the Beasts

Madeleine L’Engle’s fine story Dance in the Desert begins with a caravan of people traveling in hurried fear through a trackless wilderness. They seem to be running from something, and turn furtively to check the movement of shadows at the ...
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Featured image for “What You Ought to Know About Becoming a Church Leader”
February 8, 2022

What You Ought to Know About Becoming a Church Leader

There was a saying, often repeated in the farming community of my youth, that structured the perceived values of work life simply and decisively: If you can’t farm, you can always teach; if you can’t teach, you can always preach; ...
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Featured image for “A Place To Grieve”
February 6, 2022

A Place To Grieve

Recently, we experienced a sudden death in our very close-knit family. My Grandmother, a woman who had overcome so much, a woman of compassion and laughter, went home suddenly into the arms of the Jesus she loved so much.  For ...
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