You know how wives want to hear that their husbands love them? They want to know their efforts to make a house a home are recognized. They want to be appreciated. That’s the case for guys as well. Sure, they have chores and those things they are expected to do. But still, they appreciate […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on Pastor Appreciation MonthRobert and Rosa wanted to join the church. Both professed trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation. Robert was older in the Lord. Rosa had come to a saving knowledge of Christ within the last year. They had been attending several months and wanted to take that step of membership. In talking with them […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on Pastoral Parenting“Why me, Lord?” tends to be a rhetorical question. Or maybe it’s no real question at all, just a lament, like “how are you” is just a form of greeting. But when “Why me, Lord?” becomes a real question, it often carries an edge to it. It’s spoken with an attitude. It comes with […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on “Why Me, Lord?”Our land is filled with churches that dabble in prayer. At worst, prayer is present as a perfunctory practice, like grace before a meal or token prayer with our children before bed. At best, it is alive in weekly prayer meetings and the nagging sense of guilt and grief that we should be doing […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on Growing into Houses of PrayerThe elders of my church have called our congregation to a day of prayer and fasting. I thought some might be interested in the instructions given. Below you will find the cover letter to a three-page prayer guide. Most of the requests were submitted by the various ministry teams of the church. ————————– Day […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on Day of Prayer & FastingIn a previous blog (“A House of Prayer is Built with Living Stones”), I closed with these two questions for church leaders. How can leaders train the disciples the Spirit has entrusted to them to see prayer as essential to their life and ministry rather than tangential? What can the leaders do to make […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on Prayer CorpsIntroduction to Community Houses of Prayer Ministry Manual Our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to Himself to belong to Him and to follow Him. He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness that imprisoned us in sin’s mastery, misery and condemnation. He has brought us into His kingdom of light and life, […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on Mobilizing Ambassadors of HopeLeading is not an easy task. One, leaders need to know where they are going. The GPS has to be set with at least a general destination. Two, leaders need to understand the fine art of leading versus pushing. By definition, leaders have followers. As to whether followers will follow, refer back to number […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on Getting the Lead out of LeadingIn the Old Testament book of Isaiah, God said that His house would be a house of prayer for the nations (Is. 56:7-8). Jesus reaffirms this purpose of God for the temple by quoting Isaiah in each of the Synoptic Gospels. The New Testament Scriptures make clear that the ultimate and actual temple is […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on A House of Prayer is Built with Living StonesI picked up a tee-shirt at a denominational meeting a few years ago. It’s the best conversation-starter for the gospel I have ever seen. Spread across the chest of the black shirt in large, red letters are the English words: “For,” “so,” and “the.” Underneath, to the right, is the reference in English and […]
Continue Reading... Comments Off on John 3:16 – the Bible’s Message in a Nutshell