Blueprint (my book)

New Year’s Renovation

We all have things we want to change about ourselves, things that we believe would make life better. From the shape of our nose to the contents of our wardrobe, from our home to the car we drive, at some point every one of us has thought that external changes will make internal struggles subside. It is the basis of all marketing: do this and make life better. What if we changed what changes us? What if the eternal influenced the internal which in turn changed the external? What if you/your church made 2023 a year of renovation, not a makeover but instead strip everything back to the footings and rebuild stronger and better than ever before?

(more…)

What If It Is All Taken Away?

Have you ever imagined life without the things and people that make it special? For some the loss of those closest to them has become a reality while others are coming to grips with the fact that the unavoidable isn’t far away. The remainder are aware that life, even if it is going perfectly at this point, will at some point be interrupted by loss. I must admit as self-absorbed as it seems, lately I have been more focused on the potential loss of the things that make me, me.

(more…)

Empty People – Empty Churches

I see no need to attend church. I know it sounds crazy coming from a pastor but the truth is I have trouble giving a good reason to show up every Sunday let alone throughout the week. I am referring to the congregation of course, if I don’t show up I won’t have a job.

(more…)

A Little Wisdom – Humility

Ever wonder why we think highly of the educated and powerful while viewing those who have wisdom as relics fit for the wards at the old-age home? Could it be the fact that western culture has very little time for humility? …Sometimes the word humble is used to describe a successful person’s beginnings. Have you ever considered what is suggested by this? Stating that a person came from humble beginnings to emphasize how far they have come suggests they have gone from being nothing to being something. In other words, humble = bad, their new success = good.

(more…)

A Little Understanding – A Culturally Relevant Landscape and Décor

When you hear we need to make sure our church service is culturally relevant, be excited, but approach it with cautious optimism. Both the Christ follower and those who are trying to find out what this Christ following thing is all about understand everything in terms of the culture in which they live. This makes a culturally relevant church necessary. The problem only comes when cultural relevance becomes cultural dominance that dictates the message presented so that the ways of the world become the ways of the church…

(more…)

A Little Understanding – What Does the Décor and Landscape of Our Lives Look Like?

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5 NIV

(more…)