I just returned from leading a missions trip in Belize. 18 of us were serving in a village near Orange Walk (which is in Northern Belize), partnering with a church there to lead services, serve...
I’m in the process of being ordained, and its gotten me thinking a lot about the notion of calling, since ordination is essentially an affirmation of a calling to ministry. In my experience, calling is...
I don’t particularly enjoy planning trips. Its not why I went into ministry. But its important, and I’ve gotten better at it. Last week, before a significant trip, at a time when I needed a...
I am consistently amazed at how easy it is for me to drift from intimacy with God, not because of sin or neglect or hardness of heart, but from sheer busyness. Sometime I get so...
When I was working through church government issues, I found helpful this quote by John Owen, who was an Independent and contributed to the Savoy Declaration: “Let the Church be protected in the exercise of...
This is a favorite passage from my favorite book these days, perhaps my favorite book of all time. Its describing one character’s reaction to his being imprisoned and trained in “objectivity,” which in the context...
Esther and I are here on vacation in Scotts Valley, California, near Santa Cruz. We’re staying at the same Conference Center that we met at, almost exactly 7 years ago. Its been fun to explore...
I used to be a bit skeptical about the value of personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Then one of my professors in seminary, Dr. Phil Douglass, gave my wife and me a...
Drew Trammell has written a fantastic surrejoinder to my last post. It has both the logical/theological rigor that makes for a clarifying discussion, as well as the irenic tone that makes for an edifying one....
