Musings of a Secret Church Shopper
Are we looking to make great church attenders? Are we genuinely after the bragging rights for most experiences per weekend with record-breaking giveaways? Or are we after eternal results?…what will it take to keep them in a frenzied culture wrought with anxiety, stress, scheduled events and obligations from here ’til kingdom come…and no sense of obligation to fit church attendance in to the mania?
→ Read MorePassing Up the 80-20 Rule
Is Little League baseball bad? Should family TV time together be avoided? What’s wrong with enjoying dinner with friends? No. No. And nothing. But when such things are easily committed to, but faithful service to the work of the Body of Christ is neglected, the temporal trumps the eternal.
→ Read MoreThe Dangers of Auto-Pilot
Auto-pilot living is only easy when life is easy and drama-free. But it quickly becomes dangerous when we react from a place that has been less than vigilant. We ‘over-correct’ and react instinctively instead of acting intentionally. This usually brings about less than ideal, if not disastrous, results.
→ Read MoreLessons Learned at Chick-fil-A
Have you worked on a team, whether at your job, in a community effort, as a family, or as part of a ministry outreach where there were lazy people, sitting around, and “supervising”? In the back of your mind you’re thinking, “this job would be so much easier and get done so much more quickly if only he would get up and help!”
→ Read MoreCome, Walk With Me
Encountering difficulty, challenges, and even trials in life can test one’s faith, even that of the sturdiest, most seasoned saint. Anyone who has served God with a passionate pursuit to please Him and defeat the enemy’s plan has undoubtedly encountered the enemy himself from time to time. And that is what we’ve experienced in unique fashion this year.
→ Read MoreInconvenient Prayer
At the age of 46, I was serving alongside my husband, Joe, of 29 years, in pastoral ministry. Things were going well at the church in which we were serving as senior pastors, our children were raised, and Joe and I were excited about what lay ahead for Tuxedo Assembly of God in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Then, suddenly, on an early Sunday morning, Joe passed away, leaving me there to deal with a life without him.
→ Read MoreThe Sweet Siren Sound
Once you’re ‘found’, does the siren of rescue seem ‘annoying’?
→ Read MoreWE win!
As the swimmers get set for each heat of competition, our 11-and 6-year-old daughters are on the edge of their seats, making sure they’ve been able to spot all of the American flags digitally floating in their perspective lanes. The beeper that signals for the race to begin sends a wave of energy throughout the pool, the Olympian arena stands,…and our living room. “Go! Go! Go!” “We’re ahead!” “WE are winning!” And then finally, “WE won!”
→ Read MoreDoing What You CAN Do
Every Sunday my husband and I would travel by this apartment complex on our way to church and there were people of all ages walking around outside. My heart would go out to them and I would think “they should be in church like we are”. God was convicting me for not caring enough to do more than just wish they were in church.
→ Read MoreLooking for Reaching the Rez Updates?
As we headed home on Friday, July 22, we rejoiced in the great things God had done throughout our week of ministry on the Pine Ridge Reservation to the Lakota-Sioux people.
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