I love the story of Samuel because of God’s involvement in his life from the very beginning. Hannah cries out to God for a son at the altar. God hears her cries and sees her distress. Eli, the priest, confirms God’s blessing soon to come upon her, and she vows to dedicate the child to …
One of my least favorite classes in elementary school was Physical Education, particularly during the sessions dealing with team sports. While I LOVED playing organized sports, mostly football, it was during the P.E. sessions that we would pick teams. I was not the most athletic child, and I have vivid memories of standing there, hoping …
Read more “Who Will Do This With Me? The Importance of Building a Team”
Bill and I attended the National Developers and Church Planters conference a few weeks ago in Denver, Colorado where we gleaned from the wisdom of successful developers and planters and exchanged ideas and best practices. North Georgia Annual Conference of the UMC shared five of their pertinent objectives when planning to plant a church. I …
“One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” As I was running this past Wednesday, I couldn’t get this phrase out of my mind. Perhaps I should explain. This past week, Lauren and I were attending the United Methodist Congregational Developers Gathering in Denver, Colorado. We will write more about this in the …
As I am writing this, we are at the beginning of what I consider the holiest time of the Christian year, conveniently called Holy Week, therefore you would think that I would post about that. I was going to do that at first, then I got “the letter,” which moved me to write about the …
I am slightly anemic so there are certain times of the month when I am extremely fatigued. No matter where I am mentally or emotionally, I just do not have the energy to meet the physical demands of my life. In order to prevent my body from crashing during these times, I have to be …
On February 8th, Asbury University held its regularly scheduled chapel service, and it turned into a nonstop worship service lasting weeks attracting thousands of visitors to Wilmore, Kentucky. The chapel service was already popular. It regularly attracted visitors from all over the country wanting to experience its worship. However, after this particular service, many students …
The mission of The United Methodist Church is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” I wholeheartedly agree with this mission, and I believe disciple making is the most important undertaking with which we should be engaged. We have assumed that if a church provides consistent events, biblical information, and …
In October 2021, I was visiting my daughter at her college in Oklahoma City. While I was there, I decided to go for a run and ended up in Downtown OKC where I heard the loudest bird I’ve ever heard. It was just squawking and making such a ruckus, it made me wonder what was …
The New York Times article “How to Focus Like It’s 1990” says our collective attention spans have been decreasing since 2004. We literally switch our focus in seconds. The younger generations are even worse. Marketing experts say advertisers lose Gen Z’s attention after just 1.3 seconds. You can blame it on technology or social media, but we have to …