Two Kinds of Hunger
Two parallel lines that never cross cannot make each other more bold. What would happen if these paths could cross?
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The Canoe Got Us Here. It Won’t Get Us There.
What do you do when what got you here, can’t get you there? Just finished “Canoeing the Mountains” by Tod Bolsinger, and I can’t stop thinking about the image at the center of it. A canoe, strapped to exhausted men’s backs, being carried over a mountain range because the river ran out.
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Who Told You About Jesus?
There’s a chain that can’t be broken. It started before you and it will go beyond you. What part will you play in keeping this chain going?
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Twenty Miles Doesn’t Change What We Lost
A correction to my last post: the nearest LCMS congregations to the two Iowa churches that closed are about 20 miles away, not 30-60 like I originally wrote.
I’m glad to fix that in the open. But it doesn’t change what I think this closure actually cost because the people I was really writing about were never going to close that distance, whether it was 20 miles or 60.
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Ashes on the Prairie: What We Just Let Die in Iowa
Two altars in rural Iowa have gone cold. The hymnals, the memorial gifts, the building fund…all of it scattered now, like ashes to a prairie wind. It didn’t have to happen. A young man was ready to be trained and called. He wasn’t 40 yet.
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Too Many Referees and Not Enough Players
We have become experts at identifying what’s wrong with everyone else’s ministry while neglecting the mission God actually gave us.
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What Do You Do When You’re Thunderstruck?
What is your response to seeing something you never thought possible? What do you do when words aren’t enough?
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Governance Isn’t Glamorous, But The Wrong Type Can Slow You Down
Nobody joins a church board dreaming about bylaws. But I’ve become convinced governance isn’t the boring prerequisite to mission it’s the thing that either frees your church to move or quietly strangles its ability to.
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Why I’m Still LCMS (Even When It Frustrates Me)
Honest post: why I’m still LCMS, even when it frustrates me.
Not a defense with my eyes closed. Not a critic with one foot out the door. Just the truth about what keeps me here theology, sacraments, liturgy, and a family I didn’t choose but wouldn’t trade.
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The Third Service Question – When Is It Time?
The chairs will tell you when you’re full. They won’t tell you what to do about it.
New post on the real factors behind adding a service – culture, staffing, and mission, not just math.
