Author Archives: Don Follis

Randy Tennison [Right] (the emcee for the retreat) pours the juice for the communion for our final retreat service as Terry Gufstafson (seated) helps.Dan Paxton ([wearing Colts hat]senior pastor from the Heartland Vineyard in Cedar Falls/Waterloo, IA and our speaker for the retreat) shares a steak dinner with Vineyard men Walt Farchmin and Kevin LarsonContinueContinue reading “Images from the Men of the Vineyard Fall Retreat”

About 60 Vineyard men spent two hours sharing around a roaring campfire last Friday evening at the men’s retreat. I thought the sharing would last about an hour, but it went on and on. We ended a perfect evening with ministry around the fire. Listening to the men share, I realized there are many positiveContinueContinue reading “Sharing around the Campfire”

I’m taking 65 men of the Vineyard on a 24-hour retreat this weekend. From talking with some of the men, quite a few of them feel just like the guy in this picture. They have very little margin in their life. And you know what happens when you have no margin? You can’t make anyContinueContinue reading “When there’s no margin we’re in trouble”

Pastors and Christian leaders may not be as stressed as the poor worker in the article below (yes, friends, it’s a joke!), but many are under plenty of stress and concerned about their emotional health. This was obvious to me last Wednesday, Sept. 22. As you know, Peter Scazzero came to Champaign-Urbana and led aContinueContinue reading “Pastors deeply interested in being emotionally healthy”

Peter Scazzero, author of The Emotionally Healthy Church (Zondervan 2003), and his assistant Dan Shin came to Champaign-Urbana this week.On Wednesday Scazzero lead 165 local pastor and campus ministers in a six-and-a-half-hour seminar on the principles of emotional health from his book. As he talked, he added a 7th principle that he says he hasContinueContinue reading “The Emotionally Healthy Church Seminar”

My emotions can change several times in the course of a day. They usually don’t, but they can. I’m normally a pretty steady-Eddie, but my emotions still surprise me. Just the other day I was listening to some old hymns on a CD in my car, and I suddenly started to weep. It took meContinueContinue reading “Emotions are so fickle”

Do you realize that we have 11 full-time pastors here at the Vineyard? Everyone works hard, and it’s really fun to be part of a big team. Additionally, we have 6 interns. On top of that, we have 15-20 support staff. Brothers, this is a big team, working hard to keep this part of God’sContinueContinue reading “Pray for our Vineyard staff”

Hurricanes are no respector of people, frankly. They blow on the just and the unjust. Jesus was clear that the suffering of the innocent was not necessarily because sin. Take the account in Luke 13:1-5, for example:1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixedContinueContinue reading “A Marching Hurricane!”