“When everything is mission, nothing is mission.” This Stephen Neill quote elicited a positive wave of wows, yesses, and amens from a ballroom full of ministry partners as I delivered our State of the Ministry address. It resonated with the room full of partners, pastors, missionaries, staff and friends because we can all see that […]
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I get nostalgic around Thanksgiving. This year finds me thinking back to my childhood on the mission field in the Middle East. Those were dangerous times. We were evacuated three times amid gunfire and threats, my Dad was arrested in Iraq, and he was even kidnapped by Palestinians. We had to leave this missional […]
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“Is it enough to simply read God’s Word, or must one actually engage with it to grow in their faith or be transformed by it?
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[Tweet “Without loss there is no gain. Without suffering there is no joy.”] I was humbled by the opportunity to meet Steve Saint (son of Nate Saint) as well as Mincaye—one of the tribe members who killed Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and the other missionaries to Ecuador. As the three of us met for lunch, […]
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The increasingly complex intricacies of doing ministry in a post-modern, post-Christian reality have completely changed the context in which we minister to children and youth today. Consider some of these challenges: Non-traditional family structures Family fragmentation Lower rates of Christian affiliation Plummeting church attendance Decreasing Scripture engagement Increasing pace of cultural change Decreased biblical literacy […]
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I heard the most awesome story recently. You can read it in detail here from my friends Peter Haas and Carolyn Haas. At age 10, their daughter prayed, “God would you reveal yourself to me and speak to me about our church’s facilities?” God gave her a specific vision of a building that Substance Church, Minnesota […]
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