Excited about our new message series that starts on Easter. IDOL Factory will be an eye-opening journey exploring the First Commandment. John Calvin wrote, “The human heart is a factory of idols… Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” You might be shocked at some of the subtle things that might be replacing our devotion to Christ. Idolatry is not about statues or religious trinkets, it’s a matter of the heart.

Lord Save Us From Your Followers, Dan Merchant’s much anticipated documentary about Christianity’s PR problem, opens today in select theaters. It will no doubt spark tremendous controversy and hopefully, much conversation. Go to the website and watch some of the clips and follow the story. Here’s the movie trailer:

Did that get your attention? ChurchCrunch had a post yesterday on how we oversell things in ministry by the big words we use and how that has spilled over into the technological front. He showed a mashup of Apple’s keynote and their excessive use of these words. I have grown tired by the over promotion, hyped up marketing, that many [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Excited about the direction of our young adults ministry for the new year. It was great sitting with our core leaders and in a matter of 30 minutes of conversation, some of the haze I was encountering about the future of that ministry cleared up. This is the power of collaboration. No one person has all of the answers. In [...]

Next month will be a year in my current position as executive pastor at The Gathering Place. When I assumed this role early last year, I had visions of all of the things we needed to do and the scores of systems we needed to change and implement. I wanted to start doing performance evaluations, I wanted to increase the [...]

1 Chronicles 12:32 (ESV) “Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” In my previous post I shared about the importance of being able to hear the voice of God as the Holy Spirit prompts us. This is ever so important as the landscape of our culture has changed. Reference points of [...]

1 Chronicles 12:32 (ESV) “Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” Recently I felt impressed in my heart (I could say the Lord told me, but that would be very Charismatic of me) that the current climate that we find ourselves in is one in which the old maps we have [...]

Great article in the current issue of FastCompany on how Cisco is thriving even in today’s time of corporate upheaval. 26 billion in cash in the coffers and they are poised to enter new markets and gobble up rivals. CEO John Chambers has led a revolution of sorts through a massive reorganization effort over the last few years. This portion [...]

This is definitely one of my goals this year, to read through the entire Bible as a personal devotion, that on top of regular Bible study for sermons and teaching opportunities. YouVersion from LifeChurch.tv is a fantastic online resource and they have a great reading plan that I can take advantage of from my web-enabled G1 phone. We need a [...]

Last night was our New Year Celebration Service at The Gathering Place. It was a great night of thanking God for His blessings on this past year and declaring the Greater (Gr8R) things He has for us in the new. May this new season bring you Gr8R peace, Gr8R joy, Gr8r clarity, Gr8R direction, Gr8R sense of purpose than you [...]

Rick Warren certainly has had his share of detractors with the announcement of his invitation to pray at the Inauguration , both from the gay community as well as from Bible thumpers. I guess those two parties can agree on one thing. The LA Times released a story about Rick’s Christmas eve sermon at Saddleback. Here is a great quote [...]

I am really excited about this weekend. I’ll be in Dallas visiting two world class churches, Gateway Church and Fellowship Church. These are two of my favorite churches and they excel at creating and maintaining a culture of innovation, creativity and taking care of people. I’ll be posting photos of my visit. Can’t wait for the vision boost!