I am coaching you and I appreciate our time together.  As a pastor, my temptation is to listen to you, think of what I would do and then blurt it out.  But that's not what I want to do here.  As your coach, I am more of a bouncing board and want to listen andContinue reading "Good Coaching questions…"

I'm up at the Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake, Wisconsin, this week at a conference called Introduction and Foundations to coaching.  I'm with pastors and missionaries from denominations such as the Evangelical Free Church, Brethren in Christ and American Baptist denominations.Our trainer, Sandra Wimpelberg from Nashville, is focusing on developing and understanding theContinue reading "Unlocking your potential…by using a coach"

The Vineyard church movement plants new churches.  That's part of our ongoing strategy.Who knew that the Vineyard now markets the ingredients essential for all church-planting kits?  ... [Just kidding, folks]This Vineyard Grill Tool Set is prominently located ... pretty as you please ... right at the top of the escalators in Macy's... 🙂

Extraordinarily thoughtful Vineyard pastor  and blogger Ken Wilson from Ann Arbor, Michigan, tells young pastors that certainty can make good, kind, warm-hearted people, blind.Certainty can make you pooh-pooh Jesus words, "Treat other people the way you want to be treated."  Wilson says love of certainty is not the same as love of truth.  It's justContinue reading "Total certainty can lead to total blindness"

In this fourth week of Lent (March 25th) the Church celebrates the Annunciation of the Lord. ... Luke 1:26-38.I find it helpful to contemplate pictures of the scene like da Vinci's famous depiction of the announcement.And when I hear Mary say "Yes, I am the Lord's servent," I wonder what I can learn from herContinue reading "Annunciation announcement during Lent"

  So I was having lunch with a friend the other day.  The conversation was rich, and we talked long.  At the end my friend said, "You're a good man, Don Follis."I said, "Well thank you very much."A day later I was talking on the phone, and I ended by saying, "Thank you, you're a goodContinue reading "You’re a good man … Don Follis"

  Earlier this week my New Testament reading was from John 7:1-24.  We learn that it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters.  We also learn that Jesus wanted to stay out of Judea because the Jewish leaders were plotting to kill him. We read that even his own brothers didn't believe him at this point. Continue reading "Judge correctly"

Christian liberal arts universities dot the land.  I've always liked them. ... poking around the libraries, looking in on the chapel and hanging out at the student center.  Here are a couple pics taken on the Anderson University campus in Anderson, Indiana.  It's a pretty little campus with 2,200 students ... about 35 miles northeast of Indianapolis.  There'sContinue reading "Places I like…"