A couple days ago I suggested a leadership paradox leaders face: trust God or trust others? Although both Ezra and Nehemiah were both men who trusted God, each took a different route in a leadership decision. Similarly, leaders face another paradox. Do I act upon the Spirit’s promptings to make a decision or should I […]

Every year our staff takes an overnite retreat in September to map out plans for the next year. Our process is relatively simple. The elders determine the 2-3 broad objectives for the coming year. Then we translate these into strategies and then involve our ministry teams in developing the tactics. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Heard this on a recent Ravi podcast. Incredible. “Jesus Christ continually contradicts us in the way we experience ourselves as alive…. and compels us to radically redefine what we mean by life. He encountered us the way we encountered the disciples on easter sunday. They were the ones marked out for death. Those who survived

This past Sunday our church used the sermon time to answer questions from the congregation. We received the questions via text messaging from attendees cell  phones. In two services we got over 100 questions. Three pastors were on stage to answer questions plus one who moderated it and got the messages off his laptop. This

The sign read Elephant ears, Churros, Funnel cakes. I had just finished a burger and fries and my wife Sherryl and I were strolling along Navy Pier on Lake Michigan when I noticed the sign. It had been years since I had eaten one of those fried “looks like a serrated wooden dowel with sand