I was able to catch part of the Super Bowl in Austin, TX. The leadership team and my crew went out to eat and then headed back to Pastor Ben’s place to catch the 2nd half of the Super Bowl game. We were all trying to be polite to one another as we were […]
Cultivating Creativity in the Church
I recently heard about how the Assemblies of God denomination is committed to raising up the youth to use their God-given talents in the area of the fine arts. Every year, they have the festival in a different major city in the United States. In August 2010, they had their national Fine Arts Festival […]
Reflections on 2011 One Desire Fast
Photo by HMCC Publication Team I will confess – I hate fasting, but it is a spiritual discipline that has been a part of my spirituality ever since I was in college. For some reason, with all the ups and downs of fasting, God has used it to really minister to […]
Lessons on Leadership from Steve Jobs
Photo from zdnet.com As many of you probably heard, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple recently took a leave of absence because of medical reasons. First of all, this is not his fist leave of absence attributed to health reasons. Back in 2004, Jobs took a leave of absence due to […]
MLK 2011
Throughout history, there were people who made an indelible mark on the hearts of humankind and in society. In fact, they became the catalyst for starting movements that transformed the world. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a person who lived in a time in American history where there were enormous injustices. King dared to […]
Wrestling with Transformation
Inevitably in my travels as I talk about the Gospel, the Church and the Kingdom of God, the topic of “transformation” comes up. Usually, I always get two responses from people. Either I get a passionate response as we talk about transformation or I get a cynical and jaded look from […]
The Bible Can Transform Us
One of the things that I always start in the new year is to make a commitment to read through the whole bible in one year. It is a habit that I have been doing for awhile now. There have been many times when I wanted to quit… been behind in the reading… didn’t […]
Who is Really the Transient Person?
Photo by Getty Images In the last several months, I have been in several good discussions with various people about the transient nature of college students. People have always asked me, “How can you minister to a lifestage, where after four years they leave and then, you have to start all […]
Leadership Culture
Photo by Associated Press In the sports world you can learn a lot about leadership. In particular, when you look at the top leadership of a team, you get a window into the culture that is being built. I don’t know if you have noticed, but in many winning sports programs, […]
What We Were NOT Created To Do
Photo from alaska-in-pictures.com Have you ever thought about how certain things in life are created to do something? A lot of times we look at it from just one angle – the functionality of things. Therefore, we would say, “a fish in water is created to swim or an eagle in […]
Thanksgiving 2010 Reflections
Photo from canvasreplicas.com As today is officially Thanksgiving Day, I wanted to take this time to write about how truly thankful I am for so many things. I have been sharing with people that there is a strong connection between a person’s level of gratitude and their lives being filled with […]
Two Important Days for Men
Photo by annegeddes.com This past weekend there were two significant observances. On November 19th, it was the International Men’s Day and then on November 20th it was the National Adoption Day. For some reason, I just found the two back-to-back commemorative days a bit interesting. The International Men’s day was created […]
Shining the Light on Robert Barriger
My time in Lima, Peru was incredible. In fact, it was like a mini-retreat for me. I was able to recalibrate and get my spirit renewed. But most of all, I was able to reconnect with one of my spiritual mentors, Pastor Robert Barriger. I have come to the realization that there are always […]
Advancing Together with the 2020 Vision
Photo by HMCC-AA Publication Team It has been about a month since we shared the 2020 Vision with all the HMCC churches. Once again, this is an endeavor that will require a tremendous amount of faith and prayer. Throughout history, whenever great things were accomplished, there were several traits consistently present: […]