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My new favorite place to reflect… :)This morning I led the leadership team at the Bay Area Vineyard in Beaver Bay, MN, discussing the results of their Natural Church Development test results.  This is an instrument that helps churches explore church health.  They are a pretty healthy group with lots of great potential.  We allContinueContinue reading “Saturday seminar … location, location, location”

7:15am in Beaver Lake, Minnesota.  Sun coming up over Lake Superior at the home of Gerry Cheney, where I am staying.  Gerry and Shelley Cheney are pastors of the Bay Area Vineyard Church in Silver Bay, Minnesota, which is 3 miles north of Beaver Bay.  It’s 6 degrees this morning with a pretty good wind.. ContinueContinue reading “Morning in Beaver Lake, Minnesota”

This week I am up in the woods of northern Wisconsin meeting with and coaching pastors.  Last night I stayed with a friend on his home that sits beside a frozen 40-acre lake.  My friend’s son and several of the neighbors went 3 miles into town to a hockey match last night.  How did theyContinueContinue reading “Getting home quickly!”

Please remove your hats as we wait at the red light outside the famous Lambeau FieldSince I am guy who needs lots of inspiration, I decided to drive the 400 miles north of where I live and and drive around the famous Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.  Green Bay is still in itContinueContinue reading “Green Bay Inspiration, baby!”

Ponder this line for a million years…Philippians 2:8 (English Standard Version)8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by(A) becoming obedient to the point of death,(B) even death on a cross.

A reading of Matthew 9, after Jesus returned to Capernaum, makes one consider some possible newspaper headlines of the day…Synagogue ruler ostracized and mocked after daughter recovers from flu; daughter is taunted and laughed at by neighbors while screaming with happiness (v18-26)Confused woman lunges for Rabbi’s robe; neighbors admit to often questioning her truthfulness (v20-22)RespectedContinueContinue reading “How do you read the headlines?”

… in 2011? 1.  New mercies every morning … Lamentations 3:22-23God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.They’re created new every morning.How great your faithfulness!I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).He’s all I’ve got left. 2.  The past is the past … Philippians 3:13-14No, dear brothers and sisters, IContinueContinue reading “What lies ahead?”

The Word became flesh and lived among us.  Because of that, says writer Dallas Willard, “nothing irredeemable has happened or can happen to us on our way to our destiny in God’s full world.”And it was J.R.R. Tolkien who who once spoke of “Joy beyond the walls of the world more poignant than grief.”Jesus livedContinueContinue reading “Merry Christmas way beyond the walls”