Our Church's Coronavirus Decision
We’re all trying to make timely decisions and communicate clearly during the COVID-19 disruption. Here’s what our church is doing. … More Our Church's Coronavirus Decision
We’re all trying to make timely decisions and communicate clearly during the COVID-19 disruption. Here’s what our church is doing. … More Our Church's Coronavirus Decision
There’s nothing like coming home. Sunday we celebrated our first service back in our church building after being displaced for more than a year. For months this day had been circled on our calendars, and it didn’t disappoint. Doors opened at 9:00am, and people began flooding into the building. Twenty-eight inches of water in a … More Coming Home
It’s been 375 days since floodwaters first slid beneath the doors of our church building in west Houston. Twenty-eight inches later, the adventure had begun. It cost nearly $500,000 just to gut the first floor, and we lost at least $500,000 in contents. Reconstruction has lasted nine months, and the final cost—well beyond the initial … More Relaunching in Houston
The end of November marks six months we’ve been in Houston. Our kids haven’t completed a grade yet, we’re still looking for a house, and I’m laboring to match names and faces at church. But sometimes it feels like we’ve been here ten years. No one could’ve predicted the well-known events that have unfolded in … More Thankful in Houston
Four weeks ago, Hurricane Harvey made landfall south of Houston. Three weeks ago, I was kayaking up to the doors of our flooded church building. Two weeks ago, some church members were finally seeing the waters recede from their homes. One week ago, we were preparing for our first Sunday service in our new temporary … More Ten Brief Updates from Houston
The days seem to blend together now. Like discernible raindrops slurred into murky floodwaters, the calendar itself has lost its shape. Repeatedly over the past couple weeks, I’ve heard Houstonians confuse the days, just like the rain confused creeks and bayous and reservoirs with streets and neighborhoods and homes. Harvey, and now Irma, are slowly fading … More Hope and Help When It’s Hard
The water has finally subsided from our building. Like Noah’s dove (Genesis 8:12), we now land and begin exploring the new chapter God’s writing for us. We exit this ark with some trepidation, to be sure. But we also step out with great confidence, knowing that God loves bringing a new creation up from the … More The Dove and the New Creation: Our Next Chapter at BridgePoint
I never imagined I’d be sloshing through two feet of brown floodwater in our church building two weeks after my installation service and three months after we moved to Houston. But there I was this past Friday, with my brother Mike, kayaking across the parking lot and gliding through the glass doors and then wading … More Singing in the Rain
The South Texas catastrophe stemming from Hurricane Harvey has just begun here in Houston. The clouds over our home parted this evening and the sun shone through for the first time in five days, but make no mistake: high floodwaters are still filling much of the city, pregnant creeks and rivers are still sending runoff … More Tuesday’s Reflections from Houston
This is going to be an unedited, stream-of-consciousness post. As the nation knows, Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the Gulf Coast on Friday. Since then, rain has been falling constantly in the Houston area. The tropical storm has been hovering in-place over the region, picking up water from the Gulf and slinging it into the … More Help for Houston
On June 1, after a two-day caravan involving an Odyssey filled with kids trailing a U-Haul packed with stuff, our family awoke in the outskirts of west Houston and began the surprising new chapter God is authoring into our half-dozen lives. Now two months into our Texas adventure, I’m ready to start writing again, this … More Relaunching from Houston
BridgePoint Bible Church Ray and Hollington Architects Fretz Construction Photo: John Lindy We are thrilled to announce that God has called me to serve as Lead Pastor at BridgePoint Bible Church in Houston, Texas. Cindi and I just returned from a 5-day candidating trip, and the church voted overwhelmingly to invite us to serve with … More Following the Cloud and Flame: A New Gundersen Journey
I enjoyed three main courses this past school year in addition to doctoral colloquia and other projects. For those who may be interested, below are summaries of the three major papers I wrote for my Ph.D. seminars. TITLE: “Exegesis of Romans 1:18-25” COURSE: Exegesis of Romans with Dr. Tom Schreiner Thesis/Summary: “In Romans 1:18–25 Paul … More Ph.D. Papers
Winter is here, snow is falling, and carols are playing in the living room. We just finished our first two-on-one snowball fight in the backyard and the sky is greying over to tell us that yet more snow is on the way. The seven-foot noble fir stands dignified and beautiful in the corner, decorated according to custom in all … More Life in Louisville
My semester class schedule is now finalized. I’ve already completed the initial online course consisting of nine brief online lectures introducing us to the Southern Baptist Convention and its main funding mechanism, the Cooperative Program. On Thursday I completed the helpful Graduate Research Seminar, the introductory course for all doctoral and Th.M. students which centers on research and writing. And Friday, … More The Classroom and the Crucible
Once again I sit upstairs beneath the vaulted ceilings of the Honeycutt Center on the campus of Southern Seminary. The room is still a bit warm from the day’s heat, the lounge has mostly emptied, and the friendly cleaning guy is bellowing hello to the few remaining students as he cleans tables and empties trash cans. For the past … More Full of Blessing