Division is a cancer in a community, church, or family. And you need to know exactly how to stop it. — I was only a child. My family was fighting as every family does. Charged words were yelled. Doors slammed. Walls, both physical and unseen, went up in a family that had been united. How many of us have experienced this same crushing effect in our […]
How to Make Her Love Being a Woman
(This is Part 2 in a series about empowering femininity. Part 1 is “Woman of God, Will You Lead the Church?“) One of my deep desires is to empower women and encourage them to come alive in their natures as women. This post is about how to do that. — A prominent guitarist was desperate to meet […]
Woman of God, Will You Lead the Church?
The night is darkest before the dawn. This is a universal metaphor for hope. The metaphor loses its meaning, however, if while waiting the people become enamored with the night, the light of the moon’s reflection lulling them with a sickly, pale sort of illumination, a shadow hiding the beauty present there rather than illumining […]
Why Now is the Best Time to Be a Reverse Racist
America may well turn upside down in the wake of the announcement that Officer Wilson will not be indicted by a grand jury for the death of Michael Brown. And a lot of people feel powerless. It’s time for a radical choice, one in which you can make a difference. It isn’t found on a […]
Thanks for the PB&J’s Mom, Now Get a Real Job!
This weekend, President Obama made some startling statements about stay-at-home moms. And frankly, I’m pissed. Full disclosure here of why: I’m not a mom. I don’t stay at home. I have NO idea what I’m talking about. I mean, really, all I have in this is I’ve found after six long years that the president and I […]
Why You Have To Be Hated To Be a Christian
Your parents wanted to make you a clone of them. Didn’t take. You rebelled. Your pastor wanted to make you a Jesus Freak. Didn’t work. Toned that down. You fought and fought to carve yourself into a self-made man (or woman). But you couldn’t drop one bad habit of biting your fingernails. Your culture didn’t […]
Is the Church Becoming Worldly?
(I love the church. Deeply. But I also believe we need to be alert to keep the church from being influenced by the culture. This is a warning.) A few years ago, a person close to me applied for a head worship position over a large church ministry. He was asked to send in a video […]
When the World’s Vision Turns to Us
At 9:30 Saturday morning, I’ll lace up my shoes and walk. I probably won’t say a word. I’ll gaze up a bridge at gorgeous surroundings — sun, clouds, and shimmering water — at the breathtaking horizon that greets me, I’ll place a tread-worn Adidas running shoe on a strip of pavement, and I’ll walk. It’s […]
Christ or Culture?
Christ or Culture? Which do you want to keep? I have been born completely comfortable with change. My whole generation is this way. As human beings we are designed to hate change, but change for my generation has always brought comfort, and entertainment. With each increment of new technological advancement our lives have gotten easier, […]
The Absinthe of Your Faith
It was 4 AM and I hadn’t slept all night. I was trying to lie on hospital benches with ill-placed arm rests, and finding them wedged in uncomfortable places. My brother John-Peter’s first child had just been born and while everyone else had left, I wanted to stay to celebrate the birth of a son with […]