Beware of People-Pleasing
My good friend, Charles Stone, has written about one of the hidden temptations of leadership: the tendency to people-please. I know that I fought this as a pastor and continue to fight it as a leader today. On the one hand, your job is to love and serve God’s people. This means putting aside preference […]
Equipping Students with the Tools of Leadership
Last year Angela and I were enjoying some downtime in Orlando Florida. The hotel we were staying at was also hosting a student leadership conference hosted by Student Leadership University. We had the chance to speak to the organizers there and came away impressed by their vision for student discipleship. Last week I had the […]
Thomas Kidd on Christians and History
Last week for Leadership Journal, I interviewed one of my favorite historians, Thomas Kidd. Kidd is professor of history at Baylor University, and the author of books including Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots. He is currently writing a biography of George Whitefield for Yale University Press. It was a fascinating discussion. Below is one of the questions I […]
Celebrating Sanctity of Human Life Sunday In Your Church
Sunday is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. If you are a pastor or church leader, I encourage you to celebrate this in your church. Here are a few resources you might consider: 1) Here’s an oped I cowrote with my colleague Andrew Walker for Christianity Today. A snippet: As evangelicals who came of age during […]
Don’t let your kids say this phrase
There is a phrase in our vocabulary that nobody has to teach us to say. It’s a phrase kids learn very quickly in childhood. And it’s a phrase you should ban in your household: “That’s not fair.” It sounds innocent enough. Everybody wants life to be fair, right? But this is an insidious phrase, revealing […]
Preaching as a Craft to Be Cultivated.
I love preaching. I love the act of preaching and I love listening to preaching. There is something wild and mysterious and beautiful about God’s Word flowing through a flawed man empowered by the Holy Spirit as a primary delivery method for spiritual change. This week I had the chance to interview Matt Woodley, managing […]
Fearless Predictions for 2014:
A fair warning: I’m likely the worst prognosticator in the world. Just ask President Pawlenty. And yet here I am making predictions for 2014, well, just because this is what writers do. So without further fanfare, my picks for 2014: 1) After a year (2013) of religious liberty setbacks, this will be the year religious […]