I’m going to say something that is probably going to make me unpopular with some people. That’s fine. Here’s the thing that I’m going to say: You shall have no other gods before me. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  By the way, that “all things”…

This past week I was able to attend the first ever online conference put on by our FLGA District. It was pretty good. I have some good notes in my notebook. One of the keynote speakers for the conference was David Kinnaman, the current leader of Barna Research, a research group that polls about Christian and…

My friend Rev. Timothy J. Hartner, a prince of a pastor who is now retired from his labors at St. Paul’s Weston, FL, shared his work on “lament” recently with me, what follows is my take on what he shared. We have much to lament over in 2020: deaths, illness, racial discord, political discord, loss…

If you’ve ever done any coaching with me, especially around something that it seems like you just can’t get yourself to get done, it’s likely that I have told you about the CANE model of motivation (that stands for Commitment And Necessary Effort model). The CANE model starts with the assumption that if you are…

Parables are one of the eccentricities of Jesus. He told them seemingly all the time and we love them. The word “parable” literally means “thrown alongside” (para = alongside + ballein = thrown). It’s a story or an image that is “thrown alongside” a heavenly truth that helps us to see the contours of the…

What are you hungry for? I’ve always thought that was a weird little question. I mean, at some level, being hungry is not a discriminating thing. If you’re really hungry, you’ll be willing to consider a lot of things you otherwise wouldn’t consider. But there is also a reality to being “hungry for”. Sometimes our hungers…

I don’t watch a lot of reality television, but one of the shows that I will indulge in that happens to be in the reality genre is called “American Pickers”. The show is about two guys who own a business called “Antique Archeology” and they go through the country basically meeting hoarders who have stuff…

I was ordained on July 22nd, 2007. That was 13 years ago. Which means that my ministry has now hit its teen years. I have now been a pastor for longer than I have lived in any one place. I haven’t been married for 13 years. I haven’t been a father for 13 years. Basically,…

Back in 1896, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noted that in Italy during his day about 80% of Italian land was owned by about 20% of Italy’s population. This got people thinking about the ratio of 80:20. Normally when you hear about the “Pareto Principle,” it is specifically that about 80% of the work is done…

Fellowship is a weird Christian word. It means a lot of different stuff to different people. Add to that, it sounds like something lifted out of a copy of Lord of the Rings. It seems…well…kind of fantastical, like elves and orcs and hobbits and stuff.  The Greek word for fellowship is “koinonia”. A koinonia can…