“Slow down!” is the urgent signal that appears on my car’s dashboard at least once a year. It coincides with the first sign of warm weather. At some point on trips out of town, when I’ve been going at high…
This practice was birthed out of the Ignatian movement started by St. Ignatius of Loyola, which saw monks travel the world to share the power and purpose of the gospel. These missionaries traveled in community and embedded themselves in cultures…
As I write this I’m suffering from a head cold. I hate being sick. I feel my mind and my body are failing me even though I know it’s an immune response for which I should be grateful. I just…
PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS Certainly, Christmas is worth preparing for. Alongside Good Friday and Easter, Christmas is the most important holiday for the faith of the Christian. There is no gospel without the Incarnation. However, it is increasingly hard to appreciate…
In the early days of Advent, we drive out to the Beck family farm to cut down a Christmas tree. Our only rule is it must be shorter than “Mom” so it will fit in our house. This rule is…
The Fall season and its holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving, offer us many opportunities to live as a "beautiful resistance" in our city. The following are suggestions for engaging the Fall season with both communal and missional intentionality. We recognize that…
It is an understatement to say we encounter free-floating anxiety pretty much everywhere these days—at work and school, in our organizations, in politics, and in our homes and families. We can sense our muscles tightening, our jaws clenching, and our…
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It…
If you and others around you are going to grow in gospel fluency, you need consistent immersion in a gospel-speaking community. This needs to be much more than a weekly gathering of the church where the gospel is preached…
I started teaching full-time in October. Prior to this, I had primarily been either a student or a stay-at-home mom, which meant I was consistently able to dedicate a good chunk of time to “being with Jesus'' in Word and…
Luke’s account of Good Friday reveals: “It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.…
When we think about the magnitude of seeing every life saturated with the gospel of Jesus Christ and how many people live in our cities, it can become overwhelming. For some, that overwhelming feeling can immobilize us. Moving from big…
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have…
Discipleship is a holistic enterprise. Any discipleship process that leads people to become more like Jesus will address the head, heart, and hands—what people know, what people feel and believe, and what people do. Whenever the people under our leadership…
It’s been a little over a year since we lost our beloved daughter Erin to cancer. My wife and I will never get over it nor do we want to get over it. For some reason, this decision seems to…
Have you ever tried making a sandwich with one hand? We often take for granted that most everyday tasks are a whole lot easier with two. Our body is an amazing picture of what it looks like to need…
Over the last few years I’ve been increasingly convinced that forming resilient disciples in our culture is going to take a lot more than good Sunday services and healthy small groups. As I survey the landscape of American Christianity, there’s…
Every year It’s A Wonderful Life plays in the background as my husband and I set out gifts on Christmas Eve. It’s a story I need amidst the materialism and mayhem. I need it because of the tug of war…
The following is Day 1 of 5 in a new devotional called Spirit Lead. This devotional helps create a moment of pause and reflection with God while you consider your life within the church, listen to the Spirit, and ask:…
I’m not sure why, but every time I’ve heard the word Advent this season I’ve thought of the song “Jesus Is Coming Soon,” a song I’ve never particularly liked. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cringe, or cry the first…
READ PSALM 121 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you…
My husband has on occasion accused me of thinking I have a superpower: the power to identify what’s wrong in someone else’s life and the right to tell her what she should do to fix it. But we all know…
We don’t go to church; we are the church. Our goal is not to get people to just come to our church gatherings. Our goal is to remind and equip the Church, God’s people, to be the means through which…
As a lay elder who works a full-time job in the corporate world, I have long been intrigued by the role of vocation in the Christian life. Christians throughout church history have worked in all manner of vocations. In the…
Waiting. Waiting etches itself into the experience of every son and daughter of God through the pains of bondage, plague, drought, and storm. Sarah and Abraham waited for Isaac. Joseph waited for his brothers and God’s grace to make evil…
October 31st offers a great opportunity for many to engage in new relationships with those around us or to revisit some old relationships with new missional intentionality. Regardless of what you think of the holiday and it's roots, the…
I recently observed a conversation a few Christians were having with a man who has yet to come to faith in Jesus. It was amazing to me, and saddening, to watch the Christians missing the point of this man’s…
When I was heading to Memphis for the recent Gospel Fluency of the Heart training, I happened to throw Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried in my bag. I didn’t realize its relevance to the subject at hand—the gospel and…
Bragging about what we have attained and accomplished is a constant temptation. It’s also evidence of our deepest desires to be good enough. We’re searching for evidence of right being through right doing. Boasting is an expression of our desire…
We have considered adding “Storyteller” as one of the team leadership roles for our missional communities. And I would love to fulfill this role. I love stories—especially stories of God’s faithfulness. But I’ve faced some ethical dilemmas in the past…
Early in the pandemic, it was said, “We are all in the same storm, but different boats.” This has proven to be true over the past year and a half, especially when it comes to missional communities or community groups.…
“WE ARE ALL START-UPS NOW” This was Andy Crouch’s insightful prediction early on about the coming fallout for organizations in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic. While many did not want to believe this was their situation, coming into Fall…
When my boys were small, I stenciled a black tractor and Colossians 3:23 on a burlap sign and propped it on their bookcase: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” I wanted them to…
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your…
Often we clarify our convictions hoping to strengthen unity—“Here is what I believe… Who’s with me?” But what if a doctrine becomes destructive or divisive not because of what it is, but because of how we hold it? Isn’t it…
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