How do you listen to a sermon that’s not about you? How can I benefit from a talk on anxiety if I’m not worried, marriage if I’m not married, or depression if I’m not down? I’m currently preaching through 1 Peter, and coming across some passages with specific target audiences—like Christian wives, many with non-Christian … More Six Reasons to Listen to Sermons That Aren’t About You
Our best loves are those we can’t fully explain: a flavor that grabs us, a partner who gets us, a place with roots in our heart. The Christmas season is obviously here, and while some feel more darkness than light during these days, many moments are filled with a warmth that can’t be measured. But … More Why We Love Christmas
Our morning services have been canceled due to a power outage. There are lots of weather-related outages across the city, and our provider is prioritizing emergency situations first. We hope to have power by the afternoon so we can hold an evening service, but we’ll see. This incident is just the latest in a long … More The Vision and the Battle
Father, I know that all my life is portioned out for me; The changes that are sure to come, I do not fear to see; I ask thee for a present mind intent on pleasing thee. I would not have the restless will that hurries to and fro, Seeking for some great thing to do … More Guided Where I Go
The country has been riveted, conflicted, sorrowful, defiant, and divided as we’ve watched the Senate Judiciary Committee examine the formal allegations of sexual assault made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Judge Kavanaugh is President Trump’s top pick for the Supreme Court opening left vacant by the June retirement … More Christine Blasey Ford, Brett Kavanaugh, and Something Greater than Solomon
Some people love change. Others hate it. For most of us, though, change is both a challenge and an adventure. There are many different kinds of change, of course. Some changes come in the natural progression of life, like moving from one grade to the next. Other changes come from leaders whose decisions impact our … More The Heart of Change: Four Emotions We Experience in Transition, and How We Can Respond
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
Sometimes we wonder how certain people are gifted with greater opportunities to showcase their talents or contribute to a cause or increase their influence. How did someone pick up their work? How did they get connected, recognized, and known? Why are they being asked to step forward and use their skills in growing ways? There’s … More Do Your Best Work in Private
American culture is obsessed with dropping the mic. YouTube is overrun with videos of Shapiro or Colbert or Peterson “destroying” or “embarrassing” or “shutting down” some allegedly outwitted opponent. We love the idea of leaving an adversary speechless, their intellectual sails in tatters, the foundations of their confidence shaken and (we like to think) irrecoverable. If … More Four Ways to Drop the Mic
Fifty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Fifty years later, the church in America is still grappling with the systemic aftereffects of multigenerational racism. The things I’ve seen and heard and experienced as a husband and father in a multiracial … More A Time Such as This: MLK and the Future of the Church
I don’t know what day it will be for you. No one does. But there’s coming a day—it might even be today—when you’ll feel like giving up. I’m not talking about a momentary feeling, a hazy sense of discouragement, a wisp of doubt and trepidation. I’m talking about full-blown disillusion—the wholesale evaporation of hope. I … More Don’t Give Up
I grew up singing the best old hymns of the faith. We sang them so consistently that their lyrics and melodies carved deep ruts in my memory. I couldn’t appreciate their doctrinal strength or poetic beauty as a child or a teenager, but now they resonate at a far deeper level. Now I can understand … More Be Still, My Soul
Last night was Vision Night at BridgePoint Bible Church. After singing “Amazing Grace” a cappella and hearing a stirring introduction from our Community Life Pastor, I was up. About 250 people were there to seek God’s leading for the future of our church. Earlier in the day, at lunch, I had put my head in my hands … More Vision Impossible
Outrage. Fear. Confusion. Anger. Nostalgia. Withdrawal. Many of the ways we Christians respond to opposition are far from ideal. Peter knew what it was like to face opposition, to lash out in anger or draw back in fear, to be restored in love, and then to step out boldly with gospel courage. It took him years to learn, … More Look to the East: 10 Christian Responses to Opposition
Social media didn’t exist when the book of Proverbs was first published. But folly and wisdom did. Here are twelve proverbs, reformatted for our social media age. 1. Joining a stranger’s Facebook argument is like grabbing a stray dog by the ears (26:17). 2. Where there are many comments, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his … More 12 Proverbs about Social Media
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