Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is a book about snap judgments, why they are sometimes better than our reasoned-out deliberations, sometimes worse, and how to identify which is which. It provides insights and challenges with implications on ministry and life.
Read More"Unless we are making disciples, we are not really evangelizing." This poignant statement was made in a pastoral letter on evangelization recently issued by Bishope Paul Loverde in the Arlington Diocese where I live. It effectively cuts right to the heart of the matter - the goal of evangelization is to make disciples. If we want to learn how to evangelize, we need to learn how to make disciples. And for that to happen, we need to answer the question: what is a disciple?
Read MoreEveryone who works in ministry can relate to that feeling of, "Is this doing any good?" There has always been a certain measure of this in my ministry, but as my wife and I have embraced praying with people more regularly, that feeling has been amplified. After all, we are praying boldly and asking God to do big things. Oftentimes He does right then and there, especially in the area of spiritual healing. But more often we receive a polite and sincere thanks and go our separate ways, being left with that lingering question, "Did it work?"
Read MoreImagine you asked me what you need to do to be an elite weightlifter and I responded just by saying, "You need to bench press over 300 pounds." If you were to go out and try bench pressing 300 pounds you would literally get crushed. Getting to that point requires a process, a training regiment where you build up to the desired weight. The answer of "bench press 300 pounds" might give you a target to aim for, but what you really need is a personal trainer to guide you through the process.
Read MoreOne of my favorite sources of inspiration is the Fresh Life Church sermon podcast. In addition to the great content itself, Pastor Levi Lusko provides a great example of what the heart of a pastor should look like in his preaching. What I love about Pastor Levi's approach is that he recognized that not everybody will respond to the same message in the same way. In other words, it was not enough for him to simply be speaking truth, he needed to account for the variety of responses that his message might be provoking.
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