Category: christianity
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Extra Ordinary Prayer
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face… then I will hear from heaven…” —2 Chronicles 7:14 In recent weeks, I’ve been praying with different groups across Austin—listening for hunger. Hunger for God. Hunger for His Spirit to move again. Hunger for awakening. And while I’ve…
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Forerunning, Not Competing
I recently got back from a spring break trip to Florida—family, friends, sunshine, the usual mix of chaos and rest that comes with traveling with kids. I left a day early, though. My oldest had a playoff soccer game, so I packed up and hit the road solo while everyone else stayed behind. That night,…
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Lost and Led: Learning to Trust Jesus in the Unknown
I hate feeling lost. I love leading. Recently, I found myself in an environment where I had zero familiarity—a dance competition for my daughter. Let’s just say I’m not exactly a seasoned “dance dad.” I showed up feeling like I had been dropped behind enemy lines with no map. The dance world has its own…
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New Ebook from Ben Reed
Recently my friend Ben Reed released a short book on small groups called “The Ultimate Small Group Blueprint”. Ben is the small groups pastor at Long Hollow, a multi-site church in the Nashville, TN area. He’s been a good friend and has challenged my thinking. I had the chance to ask him a few questions…
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Churches Planting Churches
This Sunday, The Austin Stone joined with many other Acts 29 Network churches to preach to our congregations about church planting and support the mission to make disciples and plant healthy churches. I continue to be grateful for the Lord’s grace in my life to participate in church planting. As we prayed for our entire…
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Called | JD Greear
I loved JD Greear‘s thoughts on calling as they are seeking to plant 1000 churches in 40 years. Below is the excerpt: First, calling is not: * Necessarily a Burning Bush/Damascus Road/Warm Fuzzy experience. We all want the Mark Driscoll, “God told me to marry Grace, plant churches, and train men” kind of experience, and…
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Discipleship and Ministry
I’ve been spending some time lately reflecting on my ministry and the coming season. As my role has continued to change and our church has continued to grow, the pressures have changed and my time is increasingly spoken for. In addition, it seems like there is always a person or a task that needs immediate…
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Rubik’s Cube and Vacation
Last summer I learned to solve the Rubik’s Cube. This summer, I am aiming to learn how to solve it in under a minute and a half, as well as solving it in as few moves as possible. Should be a fun vacation. I’ll be reposting some material over the next two weeks, so I…
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Leadership | Being Led
Hebrews 13 has some excellent things to say about how we ought to respond to our leaders: 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do…
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Francis Collins to Lead National Institute of Health
I’m definitely not a journalist, but this is one particular piece of news that I am particularly excited about, so I’ll pass it on. For those of you who do not follow the intersection of science and faith, Francis Collins may not be a familiar person to you. For an introduction, I’d recommend reading his…
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Preaching | Gentrified
My good friend Logan Gentry has some excellent thoughts on preaching, and asks some great questions. Below is a quote from the synthesis of his thoughts on what the point of preaching is: It seems to me that our preaching has a 3-fold reach in regards to focus and application. It seems that each message…
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Triperspectival Leadership | Church Matters
There is a good compilation of resources on Triperspectival Leadership at the 9 Marks blog. Here’s an intro to the idea from the post: To over-simplify, the insight is that church leaders tend to be prophets, priests, or kings. Prophets love to proclaim the word of God and dream about where God is leading the…