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Unfinished Men
This past weekend our church held a Men’s Retreat. 300 guys worshiping Jesus, connecting with one another and striving toward godly manhood in a world willing to just let them be unfinished – boys – gawking at girls, playing video games until they are 40, and playing the dumb, sitcom husband – fumbling around while…
Read MoreJesus & Pixar
Last week we studied the beatitude “blessed are you who mourn, for you shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). It is an interesting point Jesus makes. Because it’s not just: people who mourn now will one day go to heaven, though it is that too. It is saying something deep about our present experience. Without mourning…
Read More4 Questions: Pastor Grant Fishbook (Christ the King) – Pt. 1
The 4 Questions series launched with a two part interview with Pastor Norm Funk from Westside Church in Vancouver. You can read that interview here. We continue today with part one of a similar two part conversation with Pastor Grant Fishbook. Grant is the Teaching Pastor at Christ the King Community Church in Bellingham, WA.…
Read MoreWhat Piper & Seinfeld have in common
John Piper (69 years old) pastored the same church for over 30 years, and then when he was done, he saw something on the Internet that he wanted to take and adapt into a way of teaching the Bible. It’s called Look at the Book, and hundreds of thousands of people are now engaged with…
Read MoreRadical Marriage #2 : 7 Financial Principles to live by
A couple of weeks ago I said I would do a short series on a few of the things we shared at our Radical Marriage Newlyweds class. Part two is about Money. Obviously this is a complex topic because everyone’s financial scenario is so different. But here are a few of the principles we shared.…
Read MoreWhy sometimes you should give up
Did you know that C.S. Lewis only wanted to be known for one thing in life? His teaching at Oxford, and his work in Medieval literature and mythology was just his way to succeed at his real goal: to be known as a famous poet. Here is the thing. No one reads Lewis’ poetry today,…
Read More1st rule of leading
When we are looking for a new staff member or high level lay leader at Village Church we look at 4 things (Character, Competency, Chemistry, and Capacity). The first is the most important.You can teach skills to people, teach them about your organization, and train them to manage their time well but their character? That…
Read MoreWhy paranoia is good.
In Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs, he cites Steve’s father, who says that Jobs as a young man growing up and working on furniture, etc., was always crafting the backs of cabinets even though they were hidden. “He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.”…
Read MoreRadical marriage #1 – Devotions for couples
Over the last two weeks Erin and I have taught a class at Village Church called Radical Marriage: Newlyweds, geared toward those married for 3 years or less. Originally we had planned the class for just 25 couples, but when we posted it, over 60 couples signed up in just 24 hours! We found a…
Read MoreThe advantage of disadvantage
Yesterday I was sitting sprawled out under a tree, watching my youngest daughter run around playing at the park. I was reading a biography on the great 18th Century evangelist George Whitefield. He was 21 years old when he started preaching to an England so messed up that in many ways it makes the western…
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