This past week I spent over six hours listening to podcasts that different people wanted me to check out. They were fairly popular podcasts by men I had heard of before. But I had never listened. The reason they wanted me to listen had to do with their guest, and indeed the guest speaker was…
I was suddenly made aware from multiple directions that there is a new solution to children’s discipleship that is going to fix the next generation and be sure to keep them in the faith. While other kids are growing up to question their faith and leave the church in their 20s, your kids or grandkids…
Remember the joy of a snow day. When I was a kid, a snow day was a double blessing. NO SCHOOL. AND enough snow to sled, build a snow fort, and have snowball fights in the neighborhood. When I was a child, it was fun. When my kids were young, it was fun to watch…
As I get older, I have increasingly adopted Benjamin Franklin’s advice to read “much, but not too many books”. There was a time when I was concerned about how many books I read in a year. But this year, I read more repeat books than ever in a calendar year. Reading good books for understanding…
I don’t even know when it happened. Sometime in my youth, I decided to cheer for the University of Michigan. I didn’t know anyone that attended there when I was young. I had never set foot on the campus, and yet I went all in with my support. The years piled up, and the ups…
I have often joked that my taste in music doesn’t suddenly change because it is Christmas. I’ve never been a Christmas music person, and to be honest, some of the songs I enjoy the LEAST are Christmas songs. ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ by Paul McCartney ranks right up there with ‘Hippopotamus for Christmas’ and ‘The Little Drummer…
I am preaching on a passage in the gospel of Luke this week, where it is recorded that Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue in Capernaum. It doesn’t happen in the Upside-Down. It doesn’t happen in the ‘spiritual realm’. It happens on planet Earth. In Galilee, in the town of…
I have songs. Now let me back up for a minute and identify that I am absolutely one of the LEAST musical people that I know. I have never produced anything that comes close to music. I enjoy singing. I enjoy listening. I even enjoy trying to dance if the moment is right. But I…
I listen to a handful of podcasts most weeks, and two of them highlighted the problems of ai (you may note that this is not in all caps as usual, keep reading to see why) within the past 24 hours. Both of them spoke to the same issue, and this got me thinking. In one…
I fear that far too many American Christians have formed an opinion of their responsibility to the poor from experience or from political leanings. I have had many conversations over the years about poverty that concluded with discussions of poor choices and drug abuse. I have also spoken with people who have a shocking level…
Putting those words together in a blog title is part of my bold sense of humor. As an unofficial reformed Baptist who would not baptize infants, I am including these two together at the connecting point of church growth. ReCAST Church has continued to grow. It has grown in size as well as in depth.…
Every time another church is attacked I go deep into what ‘ifs’. As a pastor of a flock, I am called to care for my flock. But the metaphor gets cloudy. Am I supposed to wrestle with bears and lions? Am I called in any sense to physically preserve my sheep and protect them from…
