Author Archives: Don Follis

I have just finished my class at Phoenix Seminary called “The practice of Spiritual Formation.”  It’s been a great 7 weeks as I have joined a dozen other seminary students (most Master of Divinity students) to ponder what it means to have Christ formed in us. On several evenings Jennifer and I have driven aContinueContinue reading “The sunsets can dazzle you”

Last week an entire Phoenix family lost their lives when a flash flood near Payson, AZ, (an hour north of Phoenix) suddenly swept through a popular swimming hole, drowning them all. Many others enjoying the cool stream barely escaped with their lives. As thousands of people in metro-Phoenix do on the weekends in the summer,ContinueContinue reading “10 Phoenix family members all remembered and buried together”

  So about mid-morning I was sitting on a bench outside the Discount Tire Co. near Shea and Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, AZ. It’s the monsoon season here in Arizona. While I was waiting to have my tires rotated and balanced, rain was giving the Sonoran Desert a drink. Water was dripping off the awning,ContinueContinue reading “Oh the things you might just get to hear!”

A lot of pastors I have met struggle with self-hatred and low self-esteem. I’ve often wondered about this. I think that though people do feel called to some kind of ministry, they also have struggled like crazy in their ministries — in ways they could only have imagined when they said “Yes” to God’s call. SomeContinueContinue reading “Replace your self-hatred with self-confidence”

    In July God makes the Sonoran Desert relentlessly hot. Temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit by noon – day after, after day, after day. Neither plant nor creature gets to vote on the matter. What’s a Saguaro Cactus to do? Move north and die? —– Step outside at 4 or 5pm. Step outsideContinueContinue reading “Jesus was a man of the desert”

Just because you are older and more experienced in ministry does not mean you cannot be spiritually blind. There must have been plenty of religious leaders in Jesus’ day older than Jesus, and yet they were leaders who Jesus characterized as spiritually blind (Matt. 15:13-14, 23:16-17). What an indictment from a young rabbi, probably inContinueContinue reading “Learning from those much younger than I”

“Be Still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) was one of Jesus’ favorite verses in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament). Well, of course I have no idea really, but I think it might have been. And I’ll tell you why.  Jesus often rose early in the morning and went to a quiet,ContinueContinue reading “May your candle burn brightly, flickering less & less…”

Jesus didn’t stumble in front of the divine bullet meant for you. He stepped in front of it. — John Piper   Pastor Pastor Alan Rosnau is the Pastor of the Shepard of the Desert Lutheran Church in Scottsdale, AZ.  This summer he is preaching a series of sermons on some of the great truths andContinueContinue reading “Would you give your life to save a drug lord?”