Monthly Archives: August 2016

Evangelism Lessons

I recently gave our church ministry staff an assignment. Share the gospel with at least one person during the next week and report back. Here are some lessons we learned together.
1. We can easily be around only other believers. We work with other believers (at least we think the rest of our ministry team is saved!), serve in ministry with other believers and Continue reading

The Value of State Conventions

The Southern Baptist Convention is organized through state conventions. (Though some of the “state” conventions combine multiple states.) I suggest to you that these state conventions play a helpful, but underappreciated role in the work of our faith and denomination.
I’ve heard people predict or even advocate the demise of state conventions for years now. Are they necessary? Do they add a level of redundancy? That sort of thing. While I always appreciate efforts to make our work more effective and efficient, there are some benefits to the work of our state conventions that ought to be considered. Here are just a few.
1. They keep us locally focused. I appreciate a big picture approach to SBC life. But that big picture is made up of many smaller portraits. State conventions have the pulse of churches in their region that national entities can’t. No one knows more about the needs of my state better than my own state convention staff. The very fact that they live and worship here allows them to understand our needs in church planting and revitalization and discipleship in a way that is difficult for others. Continue reading

Undoing What’s Been Done

Great thoughts from my sweet wife!

Parenting is, without a doubt, THE hardest job in the world, but undeniably, the most rewarding.  Not many would argue with me on that…

But when your children are small and you are tired and frustrated, and think it can’t possibly get any harder–you put them to bed, breathe a sigh of relief, and navigate your way through to the end of another day.

… Only to wake up and realize that the time is gone, and they have become men and women who are living out their own frustrations, making their own decisions, raising their own children–and you wish you could go back.  Not really go back in time and relive it all, but maybe just go back long enough to treasure some of those precious moments just a little longer–and spend time repairing some of the things you wish you had done better.

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What Humility Isn’t

Humility is a confusing concept in our self-esteem generation. Perhaps thinking about what it isn’t can help us to consider what it is.
1. It isn’t winning an honor. Probably the most common usage Continue reading