discipleship

Book Review: Designed to Lead

Not all pastors are born leaders. Many churches do not develop leaders. Most churches haven’t even thought about leadership development. Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck know these truths and have written Designed to Lead to address those issues. Churches need to be developing leaders and pastors need to be always growing in their leadership ability. …

Read more

Let’s Agree to Disagree

Recently, I preached from Hebrews 10: 19-25. In verse 24, the writer of Hebrews encourages his readers to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” The phrase that the ESV interprets as “stir up” is translated in other versions as “spur one another on,” “provoke one another,” and “stimulate one another.” The Greek word …

Read more

Is Jesus Your Savior or Your Lord?

Much ink has been spilt in the last twenty years or so over an issue known in theological circles as “the Lordship controversy” (See John MacArthur’s take here). In a nutshell, the issue comes down to the question of whether or not you can have Jesus as your Savior but not your Lord. Since so …

Read more

Consider One Another

In Hebrews 10:24, we are urged to “consider one another.” Preaching this passage almost 20 years ago, John Piper had this to say about considering one another: Consider one another. But this is almost impossible to bring over into English with the rest of the sentence, because it would be so awkward. It would have …

Read more

The Daily Docket (8/14/14)

Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding— The teaching suggestions in this article for better understanding should have some preaching applications. The Importance of Persuasive Preaching— One of the preacher’s jobs is to persuade people away from worldly ways of thinking toward a biblical worldview. We are called to convince people that what the Bible says …

Read more

Bible Study Map

Several years ago, Brad Waggoner and his research team from LifeWay discovered the that the most important factor in determining a Christian’s spiritual maturity was daily Bible reading.  This is not to say that other spiritual disciplines are not important, but it may point to the fact that other spiritual disciplines are built largely off of …

Read more

Waffle House With a Baby Carrier

My brother had his first breakfast date with Wyatt (my son) seven years ago.  I think they went to the Waffle house, but Wyatt didn’t eat.  Wyatt doesn’t remember their “guy” time that morning.  The reason that Wyatt doesn’t remember is because Wyatt was only two months old.  Angela was working her notice at her …

Read more

The Devil Is In The Details

I’m a big picture guy. This is good in some ways, I’m able to usually put pieces together quickly and understand big ideas.  I am terrible with details.  I need others to proof-read and edit my work.  In my last church, my pastor was so often holding me accountable for the “details” of ministry, that …

Read more

Accountability That Works

I believe in accountability. I have a phone call every Monday morning with a pastor friend of mine who has agreed to hold me accountable. He asks me about my relationship with Angela, with my kids, with my church, and with my God. He asks about my thought life and my ministry life. He prays …

Read more