The Christ In Youth organization has had a lasting impact on my life and ministry. The Missouri-based ministry focusing on reaching pre-teens and teens with the Gospel has been impacting the lives of youth for decades. I attended their high school summer conference when I was a teenager. It was at one of those conferences that I experienced my call into vocational ministry. I took hundreds of middle...

My kids played sports for most of their school years. There were some breaks in the seasons with some of my kids but for the most part we found ourselves beside a court, a field, or a course watching our kids do things that they loved to do. My wife and I enjoyed those times. But can I admit something to you? We never felt like we truly fit in with the crowd of other parents and spectators.

I recall only a few times in my childhood where I was really nervous about receiving a punishment from my parents. It was usually because of something my brother and I did. Normally it would be something we did or said in the car where my mom or dad overheard or witnessed some manner of shenanigans or arguing...

Technology is a funny thing. If you think about it, technology doesn’t necessarily come up with brand-new never-before-imagined human experiences. Technology allows a human experience to discover a new mechanism for that experience. For example, people have always wanted to pass messages to one another. For many centuries that was done through written letters and messages that took a significant amount of time to exchange. Now, with the advent of smart phones, we get to pass

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I had the privilege of hiking in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. With each hike I was blown away by the stunning views and sweeping vistas of the mountains, lakes, and the all-around beauty of the environment that surrounded us. When I experience something like this, I can’t help but to immediately think about God...

How is your level of patience? On a scale from 1 to 10 how would you rate yourself? How would others? For the first half of my life, I would have described myself as a patient person. I didn’t blow up easily or become angry quickly. I was a pretty calm guy. That is, until we had children. When my wife and I had our second son, there was a part of me who emerged that I had never known before...

When people think of you what is the first thing they think about? Scary question if you consider it. When someone considers your name what are the qualities about you that first come to mind? I ponder this regularly when I meet with couples who are preparing to be married. One question I ask every couple is this: What one character trait do you most love and admire about your fiancé? In reply, I’ve heard...

When I was a kid and I heard my mom yell my name with either a serious or angry tone… I knew there was trouble brewing. (Though, to be honest, usually it was my brother’s name… but I digress). However, when I heard my mom yell my name twice in quick succession,

Until I was about 40 years old, I called God, God. That’s not all that unusual. After all, that is what most of us learned to call him. It’s the name we use when we talk about him and to him. Several years ago, however, I learned a new posture toward God. I more often, now, call him Father or Dad. I have been captivated at the informal, intimate, and relational way by which Jesus approached his Father as well as how we taught and modeled for us to do the same.

There was a question that I heard a few years ago that truly made me stop in my tracks. I had been a Christian most of my life but had never heard this question. There is a point, I think, in every follower of Jesus’s life where one is faced with a jarring reality.