Here’s Psalm 2:11 Serve the Lord with fear     and celebrate his rule with trembling. Yikes. I sense that few people celebrate the Lord’s rule.  More object to it.  Still more re-fashion it to suit their own agenda.  Even more simply ignore it. And yet the call to celebrate his rule — better yet, to do so with trembling — Read the full article…

In the eight years I’ve had this blog, I have often devoted my Top Five Tuesday space to countdowns of favorite rock acts. Top Five Led Zeppelin songs?  Here. Top Five Steely Dan songs?  Here. Top Five Rolling Stones songs?  Here. Top Five songs I’ve heard the most in my life, ever?  Here. Top Five Read the full article…

So . . . how do three pastors in two languages preach variations on the same sermon while on different campuses? Very carefully is the expected answer; I pray that Very boldly was the real one. Here was yesterday’s situation:  Chris Thayer, the site pastor of our Zoar Road Campus, and I had decided that Read the full article…

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve had a couple of funerals this week. And in the funeral I led yesterday — you can read the obituary here — the man we celebrated had been an accountant.  And a pastor. Now: vocationally, he was an accountant.  That’s how he’ll be remembered.  But for three years Read the full article…

People who are in grief want to talk about the person who has died. The want to speak the person’s name. They want to share memories. They want to laugh about the funny things the person said and did and believed. In pastoral ministry, one of the most important things you can say is, “Tell Read the full article…