This week I was contacted by a man who briefly attended my church when he was living in the area. He moved away, and — inspired by his positive experience with us — returned to church in the denomination of his youth (not the same as mine.) He was sorely disappointed and dropped out again. … Read more
Joel Campos and Kristy Martin ( http://studioredinc.com/redblog/ ) did a masterful job of giving voice and heart to the poor children of Davao, Mindinao, the Philippines in this beautifully shot and edited video for Compassion International. I was blessed to be one of the pastors featured in the video, as they documented my life-changing visit … Read more
Our American churches are, for the most part, well-filled on Sundays, and we measure success by how many we can attract and keep. I believe God’s measure of a great, successful church is not how many we keep, but how many we send. How much longer will we tell the lost world, “Please wait here … Read more
In a discussion among friends on Facebook, we have applauded the skills and artistic expression of urban artists, while decrying the invasive, illegal intrusion of spray-painted art on public and private property. I just stumbled upon this coming-soon WiiSpray video. Kind of an interesting solution; an outlet for artists that is very creative, non-invasive, … Read more
http://www.highlandsworship.com/arise.html This is the worship band (live recording) from the church my son and daughter-in-law attend in Birmingham – http://www.churchofthehighlands.com/welcome.html I have referred to it as a mega-church minus the attitude, that has real worship without a lot of the show-biz.
I really don’t enjoy always being the odd-man-out who swims upstream. It just works out that way. I mentioned Easter in an earlier post. Easter is a problem for me as a pastor. Oh, I don’t mean that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a problem, or even that celebrating that resurrection is a problem. … Read more
We went to Waikiki after church Sunday with a party of 11 to try the massive pancakes we had heard about. Mac24-7 is located in the Hilton Prince Kuhio, the former Radisson Waikiki. The hotel and restaurant have had a complete make-over, and it was nicely done. We had a private dining room with a … Read more
The biggest order of pancakes I have ever seen… 3 layers 14″ and loaded with filling. At Mac24-7 in Waikiki. It’s a gut-buster. Sent from my iPhone
Analog plus digital. Sent from my iPhone
I am always torn between the expectations of some of my members, who want an Easter extravaganza, and my heart, which tells me that special services sabotage the course of local church development. As a friend recently reminded me, “what we win them WITH, we win them TO.”