From My Heart and Mind

     For the last year, I have been really RESTLESS. Part of the problem is that for the last two-and-a-half years I have either taken or lead the Kairos Course about 12 different times. Over 100 people here in Las Vegas (Kairos is a 2.5-hour, 10-session course using the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement material) have taken the course and it’s been very meaningful to them. About 40 of those have trained to facilitate a future course. The course is life-changing and probably the best discipleship tool I know of to help people understand God’s purposes, His heart, and their place in His world. Unfortunately, the course also highlights what the church SHOULD be doing in fulfilling the great commission of Jesus. Max Chismon, the original developer of Kairos, a New Zealander, and highly respected in the Global South has said, “The greatest impediment to fulfilling the great commission of Jesus is the church itself.” What?!!      Then I made a HUGE mistake by reading Frank Viol

This year I celebrate following Jesus for forty years of my life.  I became a Christian at the age of eighteen and a senior in high school in Anaheim, California.  If you can do basic math, you now know how old I am.   In those forty years, I have learned some things and made tons of observations about a lot of things in life.  I have also run, walked, stumbled, fallen, gotten up, run again, walked again in the Christian journey.  I have been two steps forward and one step back like so many other pilgrims.   I was pondering the other day the whole idea of following Jesus and I realized that there are post-conversion "conversions" that happen to those who follow Jesus.  There may be more than three but I have noticed these and experienced them.  Perhaps someday I will write a blog about the five post-conversions that Jesus followers have but today I see only three.  Here they are: A post-conversion experience with the Holy Spirit.  Well, I got your attention there, didn

I have been a follower of Jesus for 43 years now. Amazing.  I have been a Pastor for 33 years.  I have one of the best seminary degrees in the world (an M.Div. from Talbot Seminary) and an almost (ha ha) D. Min. from TEDS in Chicago.  You would think that I would know what I am about to share with you....but I missed it, completely missed it. Here it is: In the Book of Acts, there are 30 accounts of conversion.  In 90% of those cases, it is NOT individual conversion-- it is family, group or mass decisions!  There are only 3 cases of individual conversion in Acts (Saul/Paul (Acts 9) , the Ethiopian Eunuch (8:35), and Sergius Paulus (13:12).  90% of the conversions in the Book of Acts happened in mass.  That is difficult to imagine in the west because we are highly individualized in our thinking.  We hear of "people movements" in other parts of the world- whole tribes coming to faith in Jesus and we wonder how that could possibly be genuine-- but it is and (incredibly) some

Sallie and I pictured with Kyle & Destiny on their wedding day,  Monday, August 11, 2014, outside the entrance to Cornerstone Community Church August 11, 2019 Our son, Kyle and his beautiful bride, Destiny, were married five years ago today.  It was a fantastic day of joy, laughter, hugs, and reunion with friends and meeting new family.  The day before was a bit...stressful.  All weddings have their own stress but this wedding had its own unique issue:  the weather.  The original plan was to have the wedding on the beach at Sand Harbor Beach in North Lake Tahoe near Incline Village (one of the MOST beautiful places in the world!).  The reception was also to be outside at a private place next to the Hyatt Regency-- everything planned out to the tee.  But the weather forecast was ominous-- thunderstorms, heavy rain all afternoon.  2014 was the wettest summer Lake Tahoe had experienced in years...and August 11 was not going to change the pattern. So, what to do?  Scramble! 

    From time to time, churches (and other organizations) have a guest speaker join them as part of their ministry or cause. In such cases, it is customary to present your guest with an "honorarium" (some kind of compensation for their time and effort).   I will speak just to the church side of things (but those in other organizations can learn from some of my experience also) as I have been on both the giving and receiving side of honorariums for the better part of 30 years. I have seen good practices and I have seen this done terribly. Most of the time it is done poorly.     If you invite someone to come and provide a service for your church (especially the Sunday morning sermon or a special all-church event), you are making a “big ask.” It is an important assignment and one that should add to the momentum of your church or organization. Here are some things to consider before presenting an honorarium:  1) You are asking someone to come in and provide a professiona

Once again, race and race relations are in the news with a major incident this last weekend in Charlottesville, VA.  Last week I was also privileged to hear from Immaculée Ilibagiza, a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990's, as she spoke at the Global Leadership Summit in Chicago.  The atrocities in Rwanda between the Hutu tribal people and the Tutsi tribal people prove that "race" problems are not always based on skin color.  It is a universal human problem. Billy Graham, the famous evangelist, has called racism "the greatest sin of the human race."  I would entirely agree.  Most of the mind-numbing atrocities of the 20th century can be tied back directly to racial prejudice and a sense of racial superiority.  Much of that comes out of the evolutionary worldview espoused by Charles Darwin and picked up by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin,  Mao Zedong and others.   From a biblical worldview (and I know...you may not agree with me but please listen to me