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HAVE YOU EVER FELT WORTHLESS?

HAVE YOU EVER FELT WORTHLESS?

I have a friend who’s been married for 20 years or so. Both he and his wife are great people individually – they’re each highly successful vocationally, and they each have great and attractive personalities. But if you were to see them together – as a married couple, I mean – it’s not a very beautiful sight to see. They bicker and quarrel and are both easily offended by what they thought the…

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How to Wander

In June 2019, after 54 years of living in the same town, Angela and I purchased one-way tickets with no return flight, boarded a plane to Nashville, and strapped the seatbelts around us. I was leaving the city I was born in, the city I went to school in, and the city I was married in. I was leaving the place where we raised three amazing and beautiful daughters, complete with those public schools…

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EASTER REGRETS - FOR TEACHING PASTORS AND CREATIVE LEADERS

NEW POST - My Easter Regrets - for teaching pastors and creative leaders.

No intro needed here. Let’s get right to it.

Now that I’m out of the day-to-day pastoral ministry pace, I feel like I can look back and see everything more clearly. Like WAY MORE clearly.

And I see with extreme clarity the things I’d do different when planning and implementing my church’s Easter worship services.   These fall somewhere between mistakes and regret. On any given day, that…

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The Most Shaming Experience of My Adult Life

The Most Shaming Experience of My Adult Life

It won’t surprise you that the most shame-receiving experience of my adult life happened in a church.

Once upon a time, I was visiting an out of town church, listening to a pastor who was becoming increasingly popular with those crazy Millennials. He wasn’t a rock star pastor, but he was an opening band pastor.

I had been through brutal year of migraine headaches, experiencing 20 or so a month. I…

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THE POEM OF GOD

THE POEM OF GOD

If God’s heart all along has been to shine a light to all nations, and if the intentions from that heart are for all people to fully experience the weight of His glory and His lavished intimacy (inasmuch as those are possible while we’re still earthbound), then how does He plan on achieving that?

It’s one thing to have high and lofty and near-ethereal goals and dreams and visions for all people.…

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THE END OF ME

THE END OF ME

“Help!”

I screamed it at the top of my dry and desperate lungs.

“I don’t know how to get to You, and I don’t know how to get You to come to me.”

You’re probably thinking that I cried out these words before I became a Christ-follower, in some small church service, during a February revival when one of those guest evangelists visits your church for a week, and when you have nightly “revival…

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How To Give a Voice to Everyone on Mother's Day

How To Give a Voice to Everyone on Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day service programming may seem simple enough, at least on the outside. But when creative teams and pastors plan for these services, they must be aware of what’s happening on the inside – under the surface of the smiles and the hugs.

There are a million different types of mothers in your churches – moms who don’t fit neatly into any programming box. There are…

Moms who just had a…

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Mother's Day Inspiration

Mother’s Day Inspiration

Church leaders and creative team leaders are always needing some Mother’s Day Service Programming inspiration. it’s always hard to envision special services, and Mother’s Day is especially difficult. How many different ways can we say, “We love you and we appreciate you?” While the words are true, sometimes the method of communicating can become stale and redundant from year to year.…

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Three Warning Signs of a Poor Leader

Three Warning Signs of a Poor Leader

There’s really no introduction needed here except to say that, if you’re under poor leadership, it’s something you probably feel, but can’t put words to.

I’m hoping to give you some words.

BWEARE OF THE LEADER WHO NEVER APOLOGIZES

The words, “I’m sorry – will you please forgive me” were first uttered to me by the owner of a Dallas-based consulting firm.  I was talking to him about something (I…

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Christian Bait-and-Switch

Every Saturday, I take an early morning trip to Starbucks, and bring home a treat for my wife and I. I mostly do this for selfish reasons, but that’s another post altogether.

I had a nationally broadcast Christian radio station turned up loud because they were playing something by Switchfoot. After the song, and as an intro into the next song, the DJ said this, word for word.

“Everything just…

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GOD'S INTENTIONS TOWARD EVERYTHING

GOD’S INTENTIONS TOWARD EVERYTHING

The cataclysmic events of Bethlehem that night speak thousands of messages into a person’s heart and millions into the generations that form the cultures of our world. One such message are the clear and unmistakable intentions of God.

If we were, in any manner confused about the heart of God toward His wayward creation, Mary and Joseph and the child and the stable and the shepherds and the star…

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Please Sing This Song In Your Church

Please Sing This Song In Your Church

There is much to be said about the songs we sing in our churches, especially when it comes to being overly critical. I am guilty of this beyond what I care to confess.

But I’ve been personally inspired and drawn to Christ’s hope with a new song by Elevation Worship. Why? Because it’s one of those rare and unique songs that invites people who once experienced the joy and majesty of God to declare…

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THY WILL BE DONE

THY WILL BE DONE

Thy will be done.   Those are the easiest words to say, and the most difficult to mean.   Thy will be done when I don’t see a way out.   Thy will be done when I’ve unknowingly created a vision of what Your will should look like, and have already started moving toward it.   Thy will be done when I have no human understanding of why or how you’re allowing this thing to happen in my life, and why…

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Three Reasons Why Creativity is So Stinkin' Draining

Three Reasons Why Creativity is So Stinkin’ Draining

Emotionally sapped.

Physically wiped.

Excited.

Disappointed.

Energized.

Quicker to anger.

Longer to grace.

A little depressed.

A little relieved.

I’m not sure what you feel like as you labor through an artistic or creative endeavor, but the phrases above describe me.

It’s crazy, really. These things I get to do every day – creating and dreaming and strategizing and executing – those exact things…

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FAKE EXTROVERT

When I was attending a Christian conference in the late 90’s, a guy with a scruffy white beard and a well-defined black comb-over was presenting at one of the workshop sessions. I can’t remember his name. He was talking about the dangers of pastoral ministry burnout, and he also had the letters PHD associated with him somehow. For those two reasons, I attended the workshop.

In my experience, when…

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God - Where Are You?

God – Where Are You?

After six months of migraines and occipital neuralgia, I wrote these words to God. I’m looking back now, but when I was in the middle of it all, I didn’t know that they were migraines or occipital neuralgia. Those diagnoses came later. I was ticked and scared and sad and grieving when I wrote these words, I couldn’t go to work at my dream job, and my daughters were headed to their friends’ homes…

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If I Could Apologize to People Who Aren't Christians

If I Could Apologize to People Who Aren’t Christians

If I could apologize to every person who has made a decision to move as far away from Jesus as possible, I would. I would start by confessing how smug and arrogant I was about all matters of faith when I was younger. About how I had it right, and how everyone else had it wrong. I would apologize for the Crusades. I would apologize for calling anyone a “non-believer”. We all believe in something,…

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