Writing
Essays and working ideas from more than fifteen years of writing about faith, leadership, discipleship, the church, family, and life in Austin.
Start here
New here? These four pieces offer a way into the writing: what shapes the church, how we lead, and how faith takes form in community. Begin with the recent essays, then explore the earlier work that helped shape those questions.
The church and the Spirit · 2026
The Organizing Principle of the Church
Start with a recent reflection on how spiritual gifts shape the church, and why I’m revisiting an old conviction about mission.
Leadership in practice · 2026
Leadership and Administration
Why leading people and bringing order to the work are gifts to recognize and steward, and what gets lost when we treat them only as skills.
Community and mission · 2013
What is a Missional Community? – Definition
A short introduction to the definition we used at The Austin Stone, and why a community of Christians is essential to a faithful witness.
Leading through change · 2013
Transitioning Your Church to Missional Communities
The opening of a practical series on our transition at The Austin Stone, with lessons about patience, learning, and the time real change takes.
For sustained explorations of a topic, browse the Selected Series.
Browse by subject
Missional community · Leadership · Christianity · Church · Personal · Austin Stone · Discipleship · Theology
Search the archive
All writing
-
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…
-
5 Big Issues in College Ministry | The Sentinel
Steve Lutz at The Sentinel has a great post on 5 major issues in campus ministry. Below is a summary, and I’ll definitely be writing some responses to this soon. 1. MISSIOLOGY: We need more work…
-
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…
-
Leadership | Contexts
Before the next section, below is a short personal aside: — As I’m working on writing this series of posts on leadership, it is proving to be a really great learning experience. Although it seems incredibly…
-
Oversight
Last night I had a great realization of all that God has allowed me to steward in ministry. As college students from a variety of ministries on UT’s campus gathered to worship together and hear God’s…
-
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…
-
Leadership | Service
As I’ve been thinking on discipleship for the last few weeks, it naturally has been provoking thoughts of leadership. I’m going to start a new series with my philosophy and practice of leadership and leadership development,…
-
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,…
-
Independence Day
Happy Independence Day! I’m celebrating by performing a wedding ceremony this evening, followed by a great night of fireworks in the neighborhood (fireworks are legal in our neck of suburbia…it’s like Beirut on the 4th in…
-
Hyperlinks – 7.2.09 (College Ministry Edition)
Below are some links for those who are interested in College Ministry: Exploring College Ministry – Benson Hines writes his observations and thoughts on college ministry after 2 years worth of research. College Ministry Thoughts –…
-
Integration vs. Mission | Exploring College Ministry
Benson Hines has a great discussion about integration of college ministry relative to mission here. This has been a consistent struggle for us in the College Ministry at The Austin Stone, but definitely one that has…
-
Discipleship | Wrap Up
Below is a link summary of the series I just finished on discipleship: Part 1 – Foundations of Discipleship Part 2 – Practice of Discipleship Part 3 – Process of Discipleship 1 Part 4 – Process…