This past weekend, our church hosted its annual leadership development conference and volunteer appreciation luncheon. I missed it because I was speaking at another church’s leadership training conference and appreciation dinner. Both of these churches recognize the importance of leadership...
Over the end-of-year holidays each year, I usually take a media fast for a few days - meaning I disconnect from news sources and ignore most of what’s happening in the world. Frankly, it’s usually no great loss. Preening politicians, narcissistic celebrities, and overpaid athletes carried on...
The longer you serve as a Christian leader, typically the less connected you are with unbelievers. That’s one of the dirty little secrets of Christian leadership. We are supposedly on mission to unbelievers, yet our job requirements isolate us in the Christian community. Being a Christian leader...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported more than 47,000 Americans killed themselves in 2017. Since 1999, the suicide rate has increased by 33 percent. Going back to 2016, while more than 45,000 people took their own lives, the number who attempted suicide and survived...
Over the years, a few people have asked me for a private baptism experience. I have always declined. A private ceremony undermines key purposes of baptism – a public witness of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and public identification with a community of believers.
Many tributes will be shared this week in reflection on the life of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. President Bush died a few days ago and a grateful nation mourns his contribution to our country.
Organizational or institutional arrogance can be a significant problem, even among successful ministries. In How the Mighty Fall, corporate arrogance leading to downfall includes these stages: hubris born of success, undisciplined pursuit of more, denial of risk and peril, grasping for...
A recent news report caught my eye like a bright, shining diamond on a beautiful woman’s hand. The report was about “ring shaming” – the practice of posting a photograph of an engagement/wedding ring online and shaming the purchaser for being too cheap, having bad taste, or otherwise failing to...
This past Sunday was Veteran’s Day. It corresponded with the one-hundredth anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I which made it an even more historic commemoration. In the worship service I attended, veterans of each branch of the military were saluted during a musical tribute. The...
It’s the week of a national election in our country and, no matter the outcome, pundits and pontificators will declare the results the end of western civilization. Not likely.