My wife and I are really excited about this couples experience that we'll be doing in the new year called Great Together. It's an integration of leadership development and marriage enrichment that we're hoping will give us renewed vision for our marriage and future family in the coming years.

 

In case you were needing a little extra inspiration this time of year, it's hard to beat this.

 

Tired of having to "unpack this" and "do life together" in community? Apparently you're not alone.

In this video from Willow Creek's Global Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels faces into a difficult situation, and turns it into a dynamic teaching moment. Starbucks founder and CEO, Howard Schultz, cancelled his appearance at the Summit due to pressure from a gay advocacy group. I'm very impressed with Hybels' response.

We launched our worship services last week with this video, and have gotten a ton of feedback. Thank you, Church on the Move, for your creativity!

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

I can't think of a better place to spend a few weeks this summer than the most beautiful city in North America. While most seminaries are quietly preparing for fall semester, Regent College lights up with the energy of hundreds of visitors coming from all over the world to experience a dynamic learning and worshipping community. Scroll down the list of classes, and you'll find some of the most inspiring professors and thinkers in the world converging for eight weeks together at Regent.

Summer School 2011 from Regent College on Vimeo.

For the past few weeks, my church has been doing a series on the parable of the lost sons. It’s often referred to as the prodigal son story, but that misses the point. It’s really about two lost sons, and their prodigal father. The two resources that I relied on most heavily for this teaching series are Tim Keller’s “Prodigal God”, and Ken Bailey’s “The Cross and the Prodigal”. Keller’s book, in particular, opens up the significance of Jesus’ elder brother, especially for the contemporary evangelical church.   Here’s an excerpt from Keller’s chapter, ‘Redefining Sin’: “The elder brother is not losing the father’s love in spite of his goodness, but because of it. It is not his sins that create the barrier between him and his father, it’s the pride he has in his moral record; it’s not his wrongdoing but his righteousness that is keeping him from sharing in the feast of the father.”   I find that so true, in my life, and often in the church. It’s a funny thing, the word ‘elder in this parable, is the greek word ‘presbuteros’. Anybody know another word that comes from presbuteros? I’m not sure what to make of the fact that my denomination is named after the crotchety older brother. Maybe we need to spend a little less time focused on our moral record, and more time welcoming home wayward sinners, and sharing in the feast of our prodigal father.

A few years ago, over the holidays, my family went on a sailing trip off the Florida Keys.  On the second day of our journey, we sailed straight through the center of an unbelievable storm.  For three days we battled rolling waves and massive winds.  I went on a three day dramamine trip, and woke up in the Bahamas.  To this day, the song "I'm On A Boat" gives me traumatic flashbacks.

The holidays have a way of stirring up storms.  Whether it's overspending, overcommitting, or awkward family dynamics, this time of year tends to be the stormiest of all. Here are a few things I've learned about the storms: 1.  Storms reveal what we're made of...they have a way of peeling back the surface level stuff to show the character level qualities of our inner life. 2.  Storms reveal our gods. When life is disrupted and comfort is threatened, we tend to cling to what we depend on most.  What do you run to, and look to for meaning and comfort, when everything else is taken away? 3.  We think we need to be rescued from storms, but storms are often what rescue us (via Rob Bell).  They rescue us from our smallness, from a narrow, hollow, self-centered way of life.  Storms can awaken us to what God is doing in our pain, and enlarge our lives as we begin to participate in God's work of restoring and renewing people and communities. 4.  Sometimes the most courageous thing we can do is give thanks in the middle of a storm. It takes courage to remember and hold onto the goodness of God in hard times.  But this kind of gratitude is contagious, and has the power to encourage the people around us.