Attending the House2House mini-conference today with Tony and Felicity Dale. I firmly believe that Sent Church will be a network of house churches scattered across our region. I’m excited about learning from these pioneers of the house church movement. This afternoon will begin the Greenhouse training with Neil Cole.

I just started to read Bill Hybel’s book Axiom — Powerful Leadership Proverbs. It’s a compendium of leadership nuggets from one of the most well known pastors in America and lead pastor of Willow Creek. It will take me a while to go through this book as I am finding each proverb extremely applicable to my current experience. I’ll be [...]

Yesterday was one of those bittersweet moments in life as it concluded a chapter for my family and I. It was my last Sunday on staff at The Gathering Place. A place I have worked at and served for the past ten years. A place where my family and I received healing, new life, new relationships, new direction and vision. [...]

J.J. Abrams, mastermind behind the hit TV series Lost, Alias and Fringe and the reboot of the Star Trek empire, wrote a fabulous essay in the May issue of Wired magazine on the Magic of Mystery. You can read the article in its entirety here. J.J. writes that we are in the middle of the “age of immediacy” where wonder [...]

Yesterday marked a very important milestone in my life. Pastor Sam announced to our congregation that at the end of the summer, I would be transitioning out from my role as executive pastor at The Gathering Place, to launch out on a business endeavor and to pursue the call of God on my life. I am overwhelmed by the support [...]

It’s hard to put in to words the closing session of Exponential. I felt like I was part of UCF smackdown. Francis Chan brought the sledgehammer to this session. He pastors Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. He is the author of Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God I first heard Francis at Catalyst ’07 and his message there [...]

What can I say, Craig Groeschel, lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv, has got to be one of my favorite speakers. LifeChurch.tv has been on my radar for about 6 years now and I have been following their multi-site strategy for some time now. We had two back to back sessions with Craig and it was like drinking from a fire hydrant. [...]

Erwin McManus has been a big influence in my life. His writings and teachings have expanded my understanding of God, life, culture and what it means to be a Christ follower. His church, Mosaic, is largely considered one of the most innovative churches in America. Erwin is a futurist, I would dare say, a modern day prophet. He is articulate [...]

This was my fourth year attending the Exponential Conference here in Orlando. I spent the last two weeks reflecting on what was unpacked during those three days so I thought I would get some of the main highlights down. Each year I get a renewed reconfirmation on my calling as a minister and further clarity as to my future. This [...]

Watch Nightline’s Face off “Does Satan Exist?” here. Mark Driscoll, of Mars Hill Church, takes on the self proclaimed enlightened one, Deepak Chopra and Mr. Twisted Scripture, Bishop Carlton Pearson. I thought Mark did a great job in presenting the Biblical view and account of Satan. He was very articulate, concise and authoritative sounding. Annie Lobert, an ex-prostitute and founder [...]

Continuing with the previous conversation on Michael Spencer’s article on The Coming Evangelical Collapse, I will share some of my observations. Refer to the previous post for links to the article. Michael makes 7 points as to why he believes the collapse is inevitable – read those here and come back for my take – go ahead – I’ll wait. [...]

The blogosphere was set ablaze over the past week with the publishing of InternetMonk’s article on “The Coming Evangelical Collapse” in the Christian Science Monitor. You can read the CSM article here. The original post from Michael Spencer, a.k.a. Internet Monk, can be found here, here, and here. Michael postulates about the demise of evangelicalism and the rapid onset of [...]

Mark Batterson shared a brilliant post here, about the need at times to “cut the lines to the lifeboat” instead of playing it safe. Sharing from the story of Paul’s crash landing in the Island of Malta, the decision to throw everything overboard, cut the lines to the lifeboat and stay on the ship, saved their lives. That story rivals [...]

Phil Cooke had a post, here, about his predictions for ministries and non-profits over the coming year in light of our current economic climate. I’ll post his observations and my comments. 1) The “easy way out” will be big. Prosperity and gimmick guys will do well. It’s because too many people look for easy answers in a tough economy. ME–How [...]

What a heartwarming and touching letter that the Bush sisters left for the Obama girls. Almost made me cry — almost!

Steven Furtick had a great post here about a topic I unfortunately know about and have seen often. He has a very sobering quote that someone shared with him that is quite true: There is very little that we do in the Spirit that we cannot fake in the flesh! Being part of the Charismatic movement, I have been exposed [...]

John 4:31 I can imagine this scene in which the disciples are urging Jesus to eat because they got him the pita and hummus combo at the local fast-food joint in Samaria. They didn’t know he had been ministering to a woman while he was waiting for them and at that precise moment a mini-revival was starting in the town. [...]

John 3:30 Got to love the confidence of John the baptizer as he was told that Jesus was baptizing and all of his congregation was going to Jesus. John understood his purpose and vs. 29-30 in The Message declares that John said “That’s why my cup is running over. This is the assigned moment for him to move into the [...]

John 2: 3-5 Big problem — the wine ran out! No problem — Jesus to the rescue! I love how Jesus responds to his mother when she asks him to troubleshoot the problem. His answer, “this has nothing to do with me, not my fault they didn’t stock up!” Yet she persists because she knows he can! She tells the [...]

John 1:10-12 It’s amazing how those closest to Jesus did not perceive him to be the messiah. As a result they could not receive from him. My prayer is that I never become so familiar with God’s presence and His power that I lose the ability to perceive who He is and what He is doing that, I do not [...]