Posts from ‘November, 2009’

As I understand it, the really trendy Christian thing to do is to bash Black Friday and bemoan the reality that American consumerism has reached the point where people are literally getting trampled to death at Wal-Mart. Then among the Christians, the still more progressive voices have begun to take a long look in the mirror instead. [...]

Discussing the Southside baptism party got me thinking about some greater truths. I think there are some greater lessons about holiness to be learned from it. To explain the title for this post, Dictionary.com defines apologetics this way: a-pol-o-get-ics [uh-pol-uh-jet-iks] : (noun) The branch of theology concerned with the defense or proof of Christianity. For a [...]

The last week I spent in Ann Arbor was amazing. At 10 pm Thursday night, I gathered with the Southside New Life Team (at 25+ strong…in really cold weather) on top of the Thompson Street parking structure to pray over our dorm and our campus. The view from up there is so beautiful…seeing Ann Arbor all lit up [...]

Here’s part 2 in the Southside baptism series. Knowing Nathan and spending some time as his small group leader has been a privilege. The magnitude of God’s work in his life just in the last year is truly astounding. Fun fact: the shower Nathan mentions in this story just so happens to be the exact [...]

The following is the first installment of the three-part Southside baptism series. Baptizing Elam Lantz this past Sunday was an absolute joy. Elam is one of my best friends in the whole world, and by the grace of God, I’ve been able to play a part in his amazing story. Enjoy his re-telling of it: When I [...]

My original vision for ThisIsChurch.net was that its entries would always record or point ahead to captivating scenes of God’s Bride in all her beauty as I see her on campus at the University of Michigan. Since I’ve been away from my local ministry for some time (raising financial support), it’s been hard to paint those pictures for you [...]

There is a storm brewing on the college campuses in America. With the emergence of the merit-based economy of YouTube, Wikipedia, and the blogosphere, anyone with a worthwhile insight, novel thought or creative idea can be an influencer. For the first time in history, each one of us has a real shot at ”going viral” and become a household name overnight. This decentralization [...]

I experienced conflict with someone very close to me the other day. Later that night, I was reminded of God’s deep and perfect love for me and my inability to love another as He loves me. And so I wrote, because that’s what I do when I’m feeling strong emotion. I imagine C.S. Lewis may have been [...]

When I get back to campus, I’ll be leading a house church community known as the Southside New Life Team. Last night, Hannah (a sophomore in our community…and yes, I got permission to use her name) sent out an impromptu e-mail to our family/team sharing some of her feelings regarding what she’s found at New Life (and specifically [...]

Emotionally, I feel like a high school girl right now. What I mean by that is my emotions have been swinging between two extremes these last couple of weeks. For those of you who don’t know, just a couple weeks ago I began raising financial support full-time to be a missionary at New Life Church at the University [...]