Understanding The Emerging Church

Identifying and defining the 'emerging church' is like nailing jello to a wall - it's virtually impossible. In fact, leaders of the 'emerging church' movement refuse to allow it to be defined for fear that definition will lead to codification and codification will lead to institutionalization and...

Answering The Call

Grady Nutt, the late Christian comedian and preacher, used to have an entire routine that revolved around, 'the call to the ministry!' He added to that last word the grunt that many old-timer southern preachers add to almost every sentence. The word came out sounding like 'ministruh' with ...

The Pastor’s Bedside Manner

In the almost fifty years since I graduated from medical school I've seen a thousand cartoons depicting the bedside manner of the doctor. They're funny because they often catch hold of a profound truth in a lively, comical way. But you pastors...

Gone Fishing!

In John 21:3 we discover that the disciples embarked on a fishing trip. Simon Peter told his partners, "I'm going fishing." The disciples chimed in and said "we're going too!" So the disciples posted their "gone fishing" sign on the upper room door and headed out to the lake. Maybe the...

Wanted: A Passionate People For God

Mark 3:1-6 (Delivered at Hope Community Congregational Church) Mk 3:1-6 is the fifth of five stories which Mark strings together in Mk 2:1-3:6. Each story demonstrates Jesus' authority over the Law and Jewish tradition. The religious leaders steadily increase their ...

Proclaiming The Gospel In A Fallen World

While I was a seminary student, I was pastor of a small rural church. I struggled each week to prepare and deliver sermons that would provide spiritual nourishment for that little congregation. At the time, I attributed this struggle to a number of factors: lack of experience, the 75 mile commute that...

Living on Purpose

Ballard spent 13 years of his life searching for the long-lost Titanic. He had dreamed of it even before beginning the expedition.

What God Taught Me Through My Wife’s Cancer

John 1:5 I sat in a cushioned chair beside my wife's hospital bed reading C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain on the morning of August 15, 2002. Honestly, the pain was mine but it was more for my wife's as she lay with bandages, tubes, and a morphine pump to ease the agony of the nine-hour surgery she had...

Answers for Unanswered Prayer

Chaplain Max Helton prayed with Dale Earnhardt just prior to the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt said, "Pray that I'll be able to drive with wisdom." In that very race, Earnhardt lost his life in a final lap crash.