Posts under ‘Culture & Trends’

As you know (from Part I), I can struggle to feel responsible for “fixing myself” as it relates to my sin. I spent most of Part II trying to convince you and me that God has a much better path to righteousness that involves a lot less exasperation and a lot more dependence. Jesus rebuked the [...]

I confess that “accountability” has been a bit of a taboo word for me until recently. Months ago,  if you caught me on the right day, you could tell me that you were were going to have an accountability time with your small group, and I would have had an internal response that sounded something [...]

Last night, New Life Church held its annual end-of-the-school-year celebration service, Overflow. We probably had about 300 in attendance (during finals!), soaking in all that God has done this school year. We danced, sang at the top of our lungs, heard story upon story of lives that have been radically transformed by the love and [...]

Most of the things I’m going to write about here I learned from my extraordinary fiancé, Jessie. These are things I’ve just begun to understand in the last two years, and most of that learning was the direct result of her boldly speaking into my life. So if you have questions about this, she’s probably [...]

I want to ask you a question: Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Now, if that question gets you wondering if I spend my weekends as a middle-aged white man on a street corner handing out tracts from the 90′s, I’m sorry to disappoint you. But I’m just a regular guy. The reason [...]

When I started hanging out with Charismatics, something that struck me very quickly about them that looked quite different from many of the believers I grew up around was how much patience and effort they showed to listen to the Holy Spirit in everyday conversations, prayer, or counseling times. I think the foundational belief of [...]

As many of you know, I’ve been spending a lot of my recent months with believers from many different churches who are significantly more “Charismatic” than those I grew up around. I strongly believe God brought me into this company to stretch my understanding and experience of his character in news ways that would take [...]

This is the last of my three-part (for now) series on the power of grace. I hope you’ve come even just a little bit closer to knowing deeply the richness of God’s grace. But before I write anything more, I want you to watch this video and do your best to emotionally engage. Feel it as deeply as you [...]

I have a pastor friend (at H2O church at Ohio State) who is probably the world’s greatest expert in the study of mankind’s eternal longings expressed via ESPN.  High praise, I know. Most recently, he pointed me to this video as an illustration of the Church’s adoration of Christ: I have to applaud Nike for this campaign…they [...]

For those of you who don’t memorize all of my blog posts, let me remind you that StrengthsFinder calls me a futurist. That means I’m always thinking about what’s next. I think God knew about my futurist tendencies when he decided to begin calling me toward relationship with him. Not many people know this, but my [...]