Every Christmas season, we and thousands of other churches emphasize the gift of the Gospel through our Christmas Offering for International Missions. I love this offering because it goes directly to the missionaries on the field for their projects and

Every year, millions of people turn their attention to the celebration of Christmas. They may only understand it as a season of generosity or obtaining things, but they embrace music, charity, and OFTEN, they will respond to an invitation to

We have been singing a song in our later services that has a bridge about how God brings good out of things that seem powerless. The lyrics say: You turn mourning to dancingYou give beauty for ashesYou turn shame into gloryYou're

This has been one of the strangest stretches of time. An allergic reaction left me with an eye swelling shut and attendant effects on my sinus system--which meant I called on our deep bench and asked Ben to take my

The weight of our current election, the pandemic, and the tension in our nation tug at our hearts and our fears so passionately that we begin to think that following Jesus is somehow dependent on election results or a particular

I have received several admonitions to pray, but lately they have been regarding the election.  So I offer a different approach, because the best thing that could happen to our nation would be for our nation to see Jesus-followers living

When you try to describe a "disciple" to someone outside of the church, the best concept I know is mentoring. A mentor is someone who comes alongside and encourages, demonstrates, answers questions, and helps a person on the journey. When

His smile was different that day as he sat down for lunch.  He had taken the time to drive from downtown to meet me.  So, I asked, "What are you smiling about?" "Today, I made my last payment for my college

We often don't want to hear the truth. We avoid it. We deny it. We look for odd ways to work around it. But often, the truth is amazingly simple. But simplicity evokes neither conformity nor success. Simple truth must

Every day you can find a rule that tells you what you can't do. "Don't walk on the grass," or "Don't speed." Sometimes they are verbalized positively, but we almost always hear them as limits. They tell us what we