This past year I read/listened to the most books I’ve ever recorded in a single year. Being granted an eight week sabbatical AND listening to a lot of fiction while biking helped boost the number of books. I have found it helpful in the past to categorize books according to my level of recommendation. But…
God has created a world in which we experience time as past, present, and future. I cannot conceive of any other type of world, but I’m sure God can. For some reason, God seems interested in the progress of His creation. We learn from the past. We live in the present. And we anticipate the…
I don’t know how long you’ve been kicking around on this planet, but I’ve been here for over half a century. And that doesn’t make me any kind of expert. I could live here for centuries and still find surprises that would challenge my perceptions. But one thing that doesn’t take very long at all…
The shift has been subtle. Like the proverbial frog getting cooked in the pot as the heat is turned up in slow increments, it feels like we got here over years. In the 90’s Bill Clinton gave the entire country a framework of discussion surrounding the killing of babies in their mother’s womb. He declared…
Everything we see going on around us is merely the tip of the iceberg. You never really know another person. That waitress that brings you your coffee and your eggs and bacon is a person with a deep history, and deep internal thoughts and struggles. You see her smile. She is more than what you…
I’ve been back from an 8 week sabbatical for a few weeks and I’ve had a lot of opportunities to interact with a variety of people. I am grateful for the many who have asked how it went and what I’ve learned. But I still have a few people each week who ask and I…
I have had two recent meetings and a couple of passing conversations at the coffee shop about the nation of Israel. It also came up at our Saturday morning men’s group. The two sit-down meetings were from visitors feeling out what kind of church we are. They were coming from two different churches who have…
Every year, Merriam-Webster releases its word of the year. They take into account the usage of words in search engines coupled with correlating current events to select their word. In 2022 the word was ‘gaslighting’ but now in 2023, the word of the year is ‘authentic’. That sounds super close to a core value of…
I have recently dusted off the covers of a couple of Christian classics. When I do this, I never regret it. I am currently rereading “The Knowledge of the Holy” by A.W. Tozer and “Orthodoxy” by G.K.Chesterton. I read “Knowledge” back when I was in college and I found it very encouraging back then. But…
Preaching through books of the Bible lands me in some strange places. For example, this coming Sunday I will be speaking in 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 about sexual intimacy within marriage. Not only is this passage about a subject that is rarely spoken of in church, but it also is a subject I don’t think many…
I have found myself reflecting the last couple of weeks on the five solas of the reformation. The reason is because I attended a funeral and the church had some large banners hanging up front that declared in a flowing cursive script, “saved by grace ALONE through faith ALONE in Christ ALONE according to Scripture…
As a church planter, change has been a pretty constant part of my life. From meeting in a basement to meeting in store front and then going to two services and then moving to the Mattawan School center building cafeteria setting up and tearing down each week to then moving to our new building to…
