Category Archives: Uncategorized

In February I was in Mazatlan, Mexico, with a team from the Vineyard.  (The picture at the left shows my daughter Maddie in the yellow t-shirt, Canadian Dave Newton in the middle and Ellen Benefield [soon-to-be Mexico missionary] in the blue t-shirt second from the right.) A week ago I returned from being with anotherContinueContinue reading “Considering Missions”

This is the year to leave the Land of Numb, the land where I was born and reared.  Not the land of Oz, friends, the land of numb.My Friday religion column in Today’s Jan. 5, 2007, Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, is titled:  "2007’s the time to leave the land of numb."Everyone will feel two kinds of emotionsContinueContinue reading “Leaving the Land of Numb”

Back in October conservative evangelicals were pretty shocked when Ted Haggard, then senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, admitted not only to a three-year cycle of sexual trysts with a Denver male prostitute, but to  a decades-long struggle with homosexuality.  While Haggard and his wife are undergoing rehab in an undisclosed locationContinueContinue reading “Sexuality purity … What does it mean to walk in the light?”

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Be on guard!  Be alert!  You do not know when that time will come.  It’s like a man going away; He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assignedContinueContinue reading “Watch for his coming”

A few years ago I read Peter Scazzero’s The Emotionally Healthy Church.  I liked it so much I brought Scazzero to Champaign-Urbana, Ill., in the fall of 2004 to speak to 165 pastors on emotional health.  The following fall (2005) I brought Peter and Geri Scazzero to the Vineyard Church to lead a marriage retreat.NowContinueContinue reading “Have an Emotionally Healthy Christmas!”

I read Nancy Heche’s The truth comes out (Regal 2006) the week before the whole ordeal about Ted Haggard broke in the news.  Heche tells the story of her own husband who died of AIDS in 1983.  For more than two decades Don Heche had lived a double life.  Until three weeks before he diedContinueContinue reading “The Truth Comes Out”

This is well-known evangelical writer Philip Yancey’s newest book and probably the 12th or 13th book I’ve read by him.  It might be the most sobering.  Even so, I have ridden alongside Yancey for a long time, and I feel safe with him as he traverses the world on his theological quest.We share some similarities. ContinueContinue reading “Riding along with Philip Yancey”

Here from pastor John Piper is a clear, thoughtful explanation of what the Pope Benedict XVI said about Islam, and how to think about it as a follower of Jesus.