The whole nation seemed to be united behind one thing for the past week or so . . . Two people in a spotlight at a Coldplay concert. Now I have a confession . . . I like Coldplay.

I am preaching my way through 2 Timothy and I encountered this verse this week in my deeper dive for my sermon.
2 Timothy 3:9

Long before ReCAST Church ever had a Sunday gathering in Mattawan, we had spent hours and hours praying for the community. I began to work from a coffee shop there and I began to get to know people and even invited people to join us. Our goal was to be a church in a community that needed one.

One of the largest task of any leader is to clarify the answer to the question “why!?” I have been listening to the book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Leif participated in many of the missions to regain the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

The Christian who believes the Bible is true, knows that this world is NOT the way it was supposed to be. We know we are frail. We know disease is real. We know we are dying. I start in this place, regarding the topic of holistic health, simply to set the field of play for this discussion.

I went through a yo-yo phase. I could walk the dog, I could rock the baby, and do the elevator. All of these are fairly entry level tricks, but I thought I was cool . . . If yo-yos could be called ‘cool’.

War is a a huge concept found in a tiny word. If words carried the gravity of their meaning, the word for the concept of ‘war’ ought to be something like 17 syllables. But this is English so “infinitesimal” means really small and “big” means large. I woke up thinking about war this morning, because…

[11] so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.   I just finished a podcast series on the Satanic Panic of the 80’s and 90’s. I enjoyed listening in, because it was a trip down memory lane. The decades of the 80’s and 90’s were formative…

I was raised by wolves.  Just kidding.  But I was not raised in a context anchored to any tradition.  My spiritual formation took place in a non-denominational Bible church.  I was raised by a single mom who remarried after my dad died.  Even after my mother remarried, I had little to no stability in my…

So, this month contains two commemorative dates that cause me to have more introspection than normal. April 1, 2005 – I became a Pastor April 19, 2009 – We held our first service as ReCAST Church (in a basement, in a home on the north side of Mattawan). That means ReCAST will be 16 years…

My wife and I made it quite a while without a large animal pet.  There were Amelia and Zaccheaus, the zebra finches we had early in our marriage.  We had a brief foray into hamsters when our kids were young.  We had a freshwater aquarium for a few years.  But Linda and I both shared…

I sit here and write this blog in between conversations.  So far this morning I have had three conversations with people who attend ReCAST church.  (After I wrote the previous sentence I had a great conversation with a young couple who just came through to grab a coffee and stopped to chat).   I am…

I have recently been made aware of a particular woman with a large following who has made a list of unapproved theologians and pastors and authors.  Of course, she is the common thread.  Her list includes Daily Grace Co.  Her list includes John Piper.  Her list includes Tim Keller.  Her list includes the Bible Project.…