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I was speaking with a couple of friends and one mentioned a book he was reading that spoke of the Image centered church of the Middle Ages and the Word centered church emerging from the Reformation.  The church of the Middle Ages employed Image by reason of societal illiteracy and its own theological presuppositions and …

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 2:3 “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21   The Clueless Pastor I’ll never forget attending a conference in Washington two months into being a lead pastor.  It was the annual conference that Pastor …

There are times in each of our lives, in each of our ministries, in the things that the Lord has us involved in, where we wind up losing sight of who He is and where He is in the situation. We become overwhelmed by fear. We take our eyes off of Him and put them …

Been thinking about last week’s post by Jeff Jackson (“The Pulpit AND the People Skills of the Pastor— http://www.crossconnection.net/2012/02/magnets-the-pulpit-people-skills-pastor). For me, it’s a crucial topic. I have struggled with the people part of ministry, I do still struggle with it, and I will continue to struggle with it. It’s going to be with me … …

One of the hot political topics over the last several years has been the issue of marriage as it relates to the LGBT or homosexual community. With the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision today and 2012 being a major election year, we’re certainly going to be hearing a lot of rhetoric surrounding this topic …

Ecclesiastes 10:1   Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor. Solomon tells us that a small thing can negatively affect a great thing. I wish to address what may be a small thing. There is a tendency among …

Our hearts are idol factories. We all know this to be true. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, humanity has been doing its best to value itself outside of God and for its own purposes. Martin Luther was correct in his assessment that if a person gets the first commandment right (having no …

I am amazed at what people heap upon the leadership of the church, especially the pastor. If someone leaves the church it is the pastor’s fault. If someone has an issue or a complaint it is automatically assumed the pastor did something wrong and it is his job to fix it. If someone betrays the …

The last 30 years of political involvement by the evangelical movement has left me jaded and cynical.  The failed agenda of the Moral Majority and all its various spawn over the last three decades should bring us to a critical examination of evangelical thinking about the nature of government. According to Romans 13, the purpose …

There have been a few times that I thought that I was going to die.  None of those incidents were heroic, so I won’t mention them here, but they were real enough.  They were frightening, shocking, and in their own way, brought an undoing into my life.  They reminded me of my mortality, and that …