Why do we call it a bullseye? Why not call the center of the target the bearseye? Or the catseye? I’ll let someone else google it and post the history of that word in the comments. But all of us know the target analogy, right? We are shooting for something. We desire for success in…
Society and history marks the swing of pendulums. There is a correlation between the legalism of one generation and the licentiousness of another. The pendulum swings in the church hymns – choruses – hymns – choruses. The pendulum swings in the church suits – shorts – suits – shorts. And in many subtle ways…
I have been reading a lot in preparation for my new sermon series “The Rest of the Week”. I am attempting to encourage the dignity of everyday work through the teaching of Scripture. It has been pretty rare in my experience to have the church talk about the work that takes up the majority of…
For a handful of us, we remember that awkward talk with our parents. THE talk. The one where many parents blushed and searched for words, mumbled some things under their breath and talked about the act of procreation. For many of us we never had that talk. We just kinda pieced things together from…
I just read a jarring headline that will be effecting my running routine for months to come. I am running low on podcasts and another pastor that I listen to regularly just resigned due to an affair. It makes me both sad and angry . . . I guess kinda “”sangry”. I am not so much…
In 1952 Congress formalized into law that the first Thursday of the month of May should be set aside as a national day of prayer. I am thankful that we have a history as a nation that includes a decade like the 1950’s where there was a significant revival after the war and people indeed…
It seems like a few weeks ago that Linda and I were closing on our home in Mattawan and we were just days away from having our first services for ReCAST church. But that was 6 years ago today! April 19th marks the 6th birthday of ReCAST church and April 1st marks my 10th…
I am preaching through the Psalms of Ascent, and contemplating that each Psalm was sung by pilgrims on the way to the City of God. I cannot help but draw parallels between that ancient pilgrimage and the pilgrimage of the Christian to that New Jerusalem that is to come. I believe that the Psalms…
I love charts and graphs. And so when I came across this chart from the Washington Post, and it was the breakdown of Christianity by state, I was hooked. There are a couple of observations that I found interesting, and many will draw even more insightful connections. I cannot help but notice the attempt in the data…
This Sunday will be Kyle’s last week as the associate pastor of ReCAST Church. He came to ReCAST at a time in our history when we were pushing the 150 mark and I was swamped. Kyle brought with him a lot of heart, a lot of passion, love for people, and a genuine quest for…
I never wanted to be a public speaker. My Junior year of high school I had to take a speech class and I refused to give an impromptu speech earning for myself the lowest grade I received in a class in my four years of high school. I was not a rebellious kid, enjoyed academics,…
One of the risks of public speaking is getting carried away by words. So this past Sunday, in reference to 1 Peter 3:15 I was talking about how Christians should be known as a people of “hope”. So far so good! But in the middle of encouraging my people to have hope I did a…
