News & Updates

This past Saturday was my 55th birthday.  My day of celebration found me walking into a big sanctuary behind a line of twelve other pastors.  There were huge worship banners on the walls of the very ornate gathering room.  Some four to five hundred folks were in the pews watching a procession of clergy.  I was next to last in the line of pomp and circumstance.  Someone grabbed Sherry and kept her from melting into the nameless crowd.  She was…

Rich Mullins penned these words: “I’m just out of reach of the lights and the music;  they silence out on the beach. I know that’s where we’ll meet.  And I’m not head over heels, and I’m not on cloud nine. And I don’t think love is blind.  `Cause I know that You see me, yet You still chose to be mine.” I’ve met God out on the beach a lot over these past two weeks.  No tingly, super-sized dose of…

About 50-75 yards off shore, there is a sand bar begging for exploration.  You can see the outline of the sand bar by the lighter color of shallow water. Occasionally you can also see brave, little-bitty (because they’re way out there) souls who make it to the sand bar… on the other side. “On the other side of what?” you may be asking.  To reach the sand bar, you must cross through and over a deep, cold passage of water…

For years, church conference leaders would scream, “Vision Leaks.”  I still think that’s true.  But after reading “Creature Of The Word,” I’m inclined to believe the gospel leaks.  Charles Spurgeon once said, “The most important daily habit we can possess is to remind ourselves of the gospel.” In leadership circles, vision is king.  This is true even in church world… probably to the neglect of the gospel.  Many would believe a vision of a particular church will inform how the…

It was one of those glorious mornings.  I hated to tell Sherry about it.  I knew she would be envious.  Set before me was a school of tiny, silver fish.  They were rippling the tops of waves.  Lines of dolphin seemed to be flirting with or taunting the shoreline.  I like to think they were just catching a glimpse of the weird guy in the chair.  Another school of fish pushed it’s 4-5 obvious leaders up and out of the…

This morning I read Brad House’s words about the futility of, “being satisfied with the peripheral blessings of God rather than enjoying God himself. I paused beneath the shade of my umbrella and gazed from my beach perch.  I pondered what I had just read.  I closed my copy of “Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support” by Brad House.  There were peripheral blessings being enjoyed all around me.  Sun, water, family… but was anybody enjoying God?  The family…

I met a friend for breakfast this morning.  This guy is an infertility specialist doctor.  Years ago he was a funny little kid in the youth group I led.  How cool is that?  Having a 7 a.m. beach side breakfast with my friend was just the best. We talked about our brides.  He’s in a good marriage with a good family.  So am I.  We also talked about the Church.  We both love the Bride of Christ.  Maybe I didn’t…

I have a dolphin theory.  I’ve been working through this one for years.  It’s a transcendent and significant theory.  It goes something like this:  God placed within dolphins a special honing device towards interested humans. On early morning coastlines … beach dwellers & soul searchers looking for something beyond themselves (transcendent and significant) … will have dolphins appear within proximity to said humans along the shoreline.  Within a sight line of 10 & 2 (just like the steering wheel rule),…

The fam finished up our week of camp in SW Ohio, and drove nine hours back home on Sunday.  We left again Monday morn for another nine hours south and my study break.  Within the span of a couple days, we went from no cell phone service and 115 smelly campers to beach and the aromatherapy of Coppertone.  Quite a contrast. As I soak in the rejuvenating salt air, I can’t get those little rug rats off my mind.  This…

I took a good friend to lunch yesterday. We ventured into the belly of the beast that is the mall at Christmas time. It was all of the December 23rd Psalm. The wallet is my shepherd. I shall want more and more. Sigh. There was no room in the parking spaces to rest my Toyota sleigh. People were streaming in and out of retail madness. Sarcastically, I’m confident this economic frenzy was exactly what God had in mind when He…