Really Listening Really Matters

I’m going to start this post off with a bad joke…  Ready? My wife yelled at me today saying, “You weren’t even listening just now, were you?”  I thought to myself, “Man, what a weird way to start a conversation…” For some people, listening is hard, isn’t it?  We get caught up in our own thoughts…

A Way Which is Full of Promise

Like many of you, I turned on the news this past week and saw the reports… Another school shooting. This time in Parkdale, Florida. I couldn’t bear to watch for more than a minute… Another tragedy. More death. More shattered lives. It’s times like these that our emotions can run rampant… grief, fear, anger… These…

Drop the Agenda

Most of the time it’s good to have a plan.  If you’re starting a church, or beginning an exercise program, or moving into a new career you should probably have a plan.  You should know how much it’s going to cost, how long it will take, who will help you accomplish it, and what the…

A Process for Discerning God’s Call

Vocational Connection Groups—which I began to discuss in this post and in this post—can be the key that unlocks a church’s ability to discern how God is calling them to engage their community.  I call them Vocational Connection Groups because they involve three activities: Living out our vocations.  In other words, as God’s people, we…

Paying Attention to What God is Up To

  If it is true that God is already at work in the world in places where God’s people have not yet gone (you can read about that HERE, HERE, and HERE), then it’s incumbent upon us to find out where God is at work, and get involved.  That’s God’s invitation to us:  “I’m doing…