You’re Stuck in the Great Gatsby, Old Sport

I’ve been trying to figure it out for months… how to make sense of this election year. And then finally, I did. We’re all stuck in a real-life version of the Great Gatsby. I discovered the Great Gatsby in high school. I loved the intrigue of Gatsby, mysteriously wealthy, wildly popular, secretly heart-broken… and a […]

Behavioural Guide for Small Teams

About three or four times a month I find myself in a living room or a restaurant with a small team of about 10 other adults. We are planning to plant (start) a church in my borough. Teams like this are unique because they are still in formation. Their core identity, values, and mission are […]

Responding to Lust, Confronting Shame: A Better Narrative for How The Church Talks About Sex

Sadly, Christian leaders are still falling prey to lust and the Church is drawn into their anguish. Some, like Tullian Tchividjian—grandson of famed Billy Graham, and pastor at former D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church—are like rising stars that seem to fall abruptly out of the sky. Others might be featured less prominently in […]

Seven Lessons from the Magi

Today marks the end of Christmas and we celebrate Epiphany. Epiphaneia (greek) literally means manifestation. In today’s language, “epiphany” is used to express a sudden realization or breakthrough in thinking. Epiphany also commemorates the visit of the magi (plural form of magus or magician), or commonly called “three kings,” who visited Jesus after his birth. […]

Merry Messy Christmas

Merry Messy Christmas! For the last four weeks our family coached a small group through Advent. We read Scripture and prayed regularly. We also ate a common meal each Sunday night. What have we learned now that it is Christmas? Christmas is for the messy. Living closer to one another, we observed… tired moms and […]

Advent For Advent (the weeks leading up to Christmas), our family always reads a selection of Bible stories from the beginning of the Old Testament up to the birth of Jesus. One passage is always difficult—The near child sacrifice of Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac. I mean… what a terrible story. How are you supposed […]

Happy Hopeful Halloween

Beyond the silly costumes, haunted houses and trick-or-treating… Halloween is mysteriously about hope. I have a curious relationship with Halloween. Trick-or-treating was a part of my childhood, but not my children’s because it was not really celebrated in France (where 3 or 4 of our children were born and spent their early years). When we […]

Structures and Spirit, Preparing for Growth

It’s the time of year that most local churches are getting into a new groove after the summer lull. At our local parish we’re finding new teachers, getting activities on the calendar and trying to count any missing or hurting sheep. It reminds me of something important — The church is a living, growing thing. […]

How much should I give?

Practicing generosity is an important part of life. Yet, I’ve experienced difficulty on both ends of the giving equation: the giver… and the developer (raising funds). Here are two tools below that may help. Pastor Eugene Cho used the simple but powerful idea of giving “One Day’s Wage” to help alleviate poverty. Using a simple […]

Imagining a bigger Gospel

There’s a neat story tucked away in the Bible about four leprous men (2 Kings 7). The story goes that the city of Samaria, capital of Northern Israel, was besieged by its Assyrian enemy. Being cut off from the outside world, the city began to starve and deteriorated into chaos… These four men were not […]