Seven years ago I was hired to direct my church’s college ministry. It was my first full-time ministry position and I was beyond excited for this new calling. I gathered my wits about me, talked to a few other pastors, and then quickly began to brainstorm, formulate...
One of my first friends in college was a girl named Keely. She was kind, had a contagious smile, and loved the outdoors almost as much as she loved Jesus. By Christmas break of our freshman year we had become fast friends, and I had already learned a handful of...
I’ll never forget where I first learned about the power of presence. It was in a hospice care facility in east Texas where my sweet grandmother Jo was dying. My grandfather, her husband of 56 years, never left her bedside. He comforted her, supported her, and helped...
I attend and work at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, and part of the church’s mission is to exhibit extreme hospitality. The church does it well. In fact, it was this genuine hospitality that brought my wife and me to the church in the first place and part of why we...
In one of my classes last quarter I spent a lot of time reading, learning, and thinking about the differences between a missional church and an attractional church (I wrote a post about this for Trochia – read it here!), but while in Egypt this past month, I...