Reckless Love

Let’s be clear: God is sovereign. He is purposeful. He is Holy. He is God of gods and Lord of lords. Let’s also be clear: No matter how I sugarcoat it, I know myself and what I have done and am capable of. My rebellious, self-loving, wandering, sinful heart. And that the Sovereign, Almighty God […]

Nothing Has Changed/Everything Has Changed

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through […]

Jesus Didn’t Die to Make You Republican/Democrat

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” – Titus 2:11-12 Recently my news feed has flared up with a few things – people arguing about a religious freedom law and hundreds of photos […]

Missional Rhythms for Middle School Communities

In today’s post I want to focus on what it looks like for those who work with middle school students to intentionally live on mission with middle school students and their families. Tomorrow we will focus on some tangible steps to equip middle school students to live on mission. But, I believe it starts with us […]

Concrete Disciple – Big Church, Little Focus

We see in Matthew, Mark and Luke in chapters 10, 6, and 10 respectively that Jesus begins to send out the 12 to proclaim the good news. They were sent to focus specifically on the house of Israel and literally house to house or town to town. And while the message was for all – […]

When the Still Sinner Shows Up to Youth Group

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:6-8 […]

Concrete Disciple – Middle Schoolers on Mission

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20 So what does it look like for a middle school student to be a […]

Ordinary Is Sometimes Extraordinary

So for the past three Monday evenings our middle schoolers have met up for our summer gathering at a family’s home in our community. We call it “Dive In” because we dive in to God’s word and then literally take a dive (well, its not quite deep enough…so a splash) in their pool. Its been pretty […]

When There Are Crowds

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with […]