Follower of Christ, husband of Becky, father of six, and a pastor at Crossway Community Church.
Currently I’m reading and gleaning much from the book, Gospel Coach: Shepherding Leaders to Glorify God by Scott Thomas and Tom Wood. I believe its a very key resource in discipling anyone, not just leaders, to better follow Christ in everyday life and ministry. One of the helpful things I’ve found in the book is … More Indicators and help for a troubled soul
Recently, I’ve been studying and discussing the book, A Field Guide for Everyday Mission by Ben Connelly and Bob Roberts, Jr., with some guys from my church. In this book, I would like to share some helpful insights when it comes to sharing our faith in everyday life. If we really believe that we are … More Common ways to bring faith into everyday conversation
A few weeks ago at a church planting retreat, I shared some musings from 1 John 4:19–21. My hope for these reflections is to help us be a people who join God’s mission by loving one another in such a way that we reflect to a watching world the love of God that we’ve received … More How the Invisible God Makes His Love Visible
As I continue to read Michael Goheen’s excellent new book, Introducing Christian Mission Today, I am regularly provoked and inspired on what it means to be the church who finds its identity in the story of God’s mission. In particular, I would like to highlight one small area of the book where Goheen writes about the … More What could the church look like as an attractive alternate community?
The mission of Jesus provides us a model to follow as his disciples. Michael Goheen, in his new book Introducing Christian Mission Today, lists several components to Jesus’ mission: Jesus announced the kingdom with his words. Jesus demonstrated the kingdom with his deeds. Jesus “lovingly attacks” every form of evil that he sees in the … More Components of Jesus’ mission
How many times do you come away from a conversation wishing you had better, more winsome responses to difficult questions, especially ones concerning life and faith? I’m a huge advocate for Porterbrook Learning, a theological training course equipping Christians for ministry in the local church that connects the heart and mission to the Bible story. Recently, … More How can I answer the question…
I came across the phrase “leftover discipleship” recently in reading the outstanding material by Porterbrook in their book titled, Gospel Living. Leftover discipleship is described as “my commitment to the church and to Christian service comes from the leftovers of my life, and my giving is from the leftovers of my money.” I wonder how … More Leftover Discipleship
The new TableTalk magazine (April 2014) is focused on the primary emphasis of the Great Commission, namely, to make disciples of Jesus Christ. This is not only a call for individual Christians to obey, but more accurately, it is a call on the church to be the church. The church’s primary mission is to make … More 9 essentials to learn as a disciple of Jesus
I thought this list of predictions for the church in America by Thom Rainer was interesting. Here are his predictions with percentages of probability: Increased church acquisitions. Smaller churches will seek to be acquired by larger churches in increasing numbers. One of the big factors is simply personnel cost. Many smaller churches can no longer … More 14 Predictions for American Churches in 2014
I’m excited to begin studying the material from Porterbrook Network this January. One of the first courses is titled Gospel Change. This course teaches us how to apply the gospel to our everyday lives for both our growth in Christlikeness and to better minister the gospel to others. In this course I discovered what may … More A summary of gospel change in a Christian’s life
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