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12 Books You should Read in 2019
You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith No book I have read in the last year has impacted my thinking more than this one. The exploration of Augustinian ideas applied to how we function as human beings, and how faith functions in our lives, is one of the most needed ideas in our time.…
Read MoreThe Best Books I Read in 2018
Second to last day in 2018. That means lists. I am going to do a two-parter here. Part 1: the best book I read in 2018. Part 2: a few books you should read in 2019. I love finding out what books people are reading. Novels, non-fiction, theology, cookbooks, books students read to get an…
Read More10 Ways Jesus Claimed to be God
It happens often. The doorbell rings and there are a couple of young men with ties on usually, or an older couple, wanting to tell you about heaven, and how to get there. Usually they are Mormon missionaries or Jehovah’s Witnesses. They, like many religions of the world, believe that Jesus was a good teacher,…
Read More3 Don’t Be Afraid’s For Preachers
You are such a natural Charles.’ ‘Ah, but sir, you do not see the thousands of hours I have studied and laboured, prayed and pleaded, scoured books and commentaries, begging the Lord to equip me to preach his Word with power and simple words. You only see the pulpit, and hear the sermon, yet you miss the…
Read More3 Things About Innovation
On the one year anniversary of an idea. Being surrounded by secularism doesn’t lead to the death of religion but to innovation. ~ Rodney Stark In June we as a church launched our first ever Cinema Site – a church worship experience that is fully video (including both preaching and music) in a movie theatre…
Read MoreHow You Can Change in 2017
This is long post. I like to write four or five paragraph blog posts because I know our attention spans are short, but I also wanted all of this info in one spot. So here is a post that I think will be helpful for the New Year! The best book I read this year…
Read MoreOvercoming the Monster: What Story Are You Telling?
In Christopher Booker’s book The Seven Basic Plots, he outlines the fact that every story we tell ourselves as human beings – since the beginning of time, whether around the campfire or in a big budget superhero movie – all fit into seven basic categories: 1 – Overcoming the Monster – The protagonist sets out to defeat an…
Read MoreQ & A Monday: Why do we lose our faith because of suffering?
“I’m having a very hard time. There is this pain I’m struggling with regarding how logical my brain is and the pain I see around me… It literally keeps me up at night struggling to hold onto my own faith.” -Ian Preamble Thanks for the honest question Ian. These are some of the deepest waters…
Read MoreTwo Thoughts on Prayer
The other day I was pondering the deep difference between our public and private lives – loving God in public versus loving God just because he is God. A couple of major ideas hit me around the same time. The first was from Charles Spurgeon. He pointed out that Jesus taught his disciples not to…
Read MoreWhy Church Leaders Need To Stop Hanging Out With Each Other
It is pure invention that popes, bishops, priests, and monks are to be called the ‘spiritual estate’; princes, lords, artisans and farmers the ‘temporal estate’. That is a fine bit of lying and hypocrisy. -Martin Luther (1483-1546) I love my friends who work in churches (pastors, directors, etc.,) but I have come to realize that…
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