Hunting for discipleship in the Old Testament – Part Three Peggy and I love being grandparents. Unfortunately, our grandparenting these days is limited by distance and a pandemic. As relatively new grandparents, the best advice we’ve received is that grandparents are expected to spoil their grandchildren. We’re looking forward to enjoying the ministry of spoiling! Grandchildren and disciplemaking are naturally linked. I love how the Bible conveys spiritual truths in physical realities. Jesus compared the providence of God to flowers and birds. The Kingdom is…
Read More ⟶
Hunting for discipleship in the Old Testament – part two God is often present in the common place. Unfortunately, I don’t always look for Him in common places. It’s easier to spot God’s presence in a packed worship service, the extraordinary healing of people, or dynamic Bible teaching. I’m learning that He inhabits everyday places as well. Everyday places are important to our Lord. In fact, these common places are “blessing locations” – those spaces where God’s favor resides. It’s in these places that disciples…
Read More ⟶What am I reading? Are you ready for a surprise? I’m reading poetry! I’m always on the lookout for new and fresh ways to reflect on the Easter season. One way I’m seeking the Lord this Easter is through reading poetry. May I recommend Malcolm Guite’s book The Word in the Wilderness: A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter. Guite is an English pastor, poet, and musician. In this book, he has strategically selected poems from across the centuries to read for each day…
Read More ⟶Hunting for discipleship in the Old Testament – part one Have you heard the story about the boy in the Sunday School kindergarten class? When the teacher held up a picture of a squirrel and asked the class what it was, the boy answered, “I think it’s a squirrel but I’m going to say Jesus!” It’s easy to give the “Jesus” or spiritual answer to the question, “Disciples for what?” The “right” answer is “for the glory of God.” Who would dispute that? Another answer…
Read More ⟶It was like a scene from a Stephen King movie. Twelve men huddled together on a dark beach behind a leader. A few torches shed light onto a horrific scene. Running toward them was a howling, bleeding, naked man. “What do you want from me?” the man screamed at the leader. The leader, Jesus, calmly confronted the demon-possessed man (Mark 5:1-20). He and the disciples had just crossed over the lake at night and were immediately met by this “nude dude in a rude mood.”…
Read More ⟶Disciplemaking is as simple as a walk I quickly saw the clutter of books and videos when I walked into Justin’s office. His office was taken over by this stack of resources. What was the subject matter? The piles of books and videos were about discipleship. Justin was searching for the holy grail of disciplemaking — the perfect program that guaranteed results. Unfortunately, the abundance of choices created confusion. Shouldn’t disciplemaking be simpler than amassing a library of resources? Let’s not complicate things! When it…
Read More ⟶It’s not about exercise. It’s about disciplemaking. Christians in North America are discovering the beautiful simplicity of Jesus’ method of disciplemaking. We’re longing for something simple because we’re growing tired of over-stated promises of curriculums and programs. We want a disciplemaking process that is relational, simple, and do-able — something that everyday Christians can do as people walk through life together. I’m thrilled to announce the upcoming release of my book Walk with Me: Simple Principles for Everyday Disciplemaking by Moody Publishers. Here’s an endorsement…
Read More ⟶Crowds and disciplemaking go together. Numbers rule the day. Politicians count the number of people at their rallies. Churches count attendance. We count and compare our Facebook or Twitter followers. Numbers and crowds measure success. I’ve always had a “thing” with crowds. Disciplemaking is a ministry of the small and the slow, a work hidden from the public eye. I’m cautious about crowds because crowds can appear to be “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Disciplemaking seems the opposite of attracting crowds . ….
Read More ⟶
The Color of Compromise: The truth about the American church’s complicity in racism by Jemar Tisby. Want a book that keeps you up at night thinking? The Color of Compromise is one of those books. Why is it so provocative? Pastor and author John Piper has been quoted as saying, “We all have blind spots and blank spaces.” This is particularly true in the white community when it comes to race and racism in the church. Tisby will expose some of those blind spots and…
Read More ⟶The church’s seasons, like Advent or Lent, have been mostly irrelevant or a mystery to me. My “liturgical” friends make a big deal out of Lent, Ephiphany, or Pentecost. In my baptist tradition, no one preached against the church seasons, they just weren’t mentioned. It’s not unusual to have an Advent sermon series but we usually don’t light candles. This year is different for me. In my diverse reading cycle, I came across Mark Cosper’s book, Recapturing the Wonder. He caught my attention on the…
Read More ⟶