I spent this Thanksgiving at my daughter’s bedside as she lay in the hospital recovering from her second brain surgery in two weeks. The doctors confined her to bed to allow a slender tube they had inserted into her spinal chord to drain brain fluid that had begun to leak from her first surgery’s incision.

I want to give you the latest update on Tiffany so u can pray. Monday she had her staples removed from her head. Pretty non-eventful until Tuesday when fluid began to leak out of some of the staple holes. The neurosurgeon asked us to come in and ascertained that the incision was leaking spinal fluid.

Each November I bring an annual “vision” message to explain the big picture for the coming year and hopefully motivate buy-in. – I seldom look forward to it because I feel incredible pressure to bring a message so inspiring that people will be willing to take on hell with a water pistol. Much of the pressure

My wife and I just returned from a conference in Bogota, Colombia where we taught pastors and their wives. We were privileged to serve with Juan Carlos Flores Zúñiga and his wife Orietta who arranged the conference through his organization. Lance Witt and his wife Connie were also on the teaching team. He served as

Last week I attended Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit at a local video venue. As usual, the speaker line-up was superb. I used my iPad to capture my learnings and these these seven stood out. We can hear the whispers from God when we lower the ambient noise in our lives. Bill Hybels, The Power of

It’s exciting to see many churches embracing community and missional ministry more than ever. When I grew up, I can’t remember being challenged to go out into my community to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the poor and under-resourced. Perhaps that’s why it took me so long to personally ‘get it.’ The

Although my kids are well beyond the teen years, I wish I could have given them this devotional when they were kids. Daniel Darling, a friend of mind, provided me a complementary copy of his new book called, Crash Course, forming a faith foundation for life. Although written for the teen in mind, I was

Recently Leadership Network asked 40 pastors (including the likes of Wayne Cordeiro and Elmer Towns) to explain in 6 minutes what they wish they had done differently in ministry. They held an online conference called SAGE. As one of the speakers, I spoke on why I wish I was less like a turtle. You can read

Do you ever think about the fragrance of Christ? What is it, what does it mean. And really, what DOES He smell like? I once read one of those tear-jerker email forwards about a baby girl who was born severely premature and was not expected to live. Due to her immature little immune system, her