From My Heart and Mind

It was the 19th century missionary, William Carey, who famously said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God."    My experience has been that when you step out, in God's power and with things that are important to Him, he is more than able to support you. I remember standing on the platform of Redwood Chapel Community Church (in the San Francisco East Bay where I served for all of the 90's) in about 1992 with Dawson McAllister.  We were in the worship center alone.  He said, "I have a vision.  I see this place filled with students...packed.  What if this Fall we do a crusade here and we do assemblies in public schools and invite students to an event each night?"  I saw what he saw– it was from the Lord not just our own dreams or desire.  I said, "Let's do it!"  Six months later we did exactly that:  we did all-school assemblies at several local high schools and middle schools, invited kids out, spread the word.  On Mo

When we came to the Las Vegas valley in the summer of 2000 to start South Hills Church Community we had some strong advantages:  we didn’t know where our church would meet, we didn’t know when our church would start and we didn’t know who would be there (besides our small group of launchers).  “Wait a minute!” you say.  “That doesn’t sound like ADVANTAGES, all those things you just mentioned sound like DISADVANTAGES.”  No, here’s why:  we had enough funding and enough time on our side to do the most important part of church planting:  meeting, hanging out with, encouraging and sharing our faith with hundreds of people without putting pressure on them to attend our church.  But we did meet literally hundreds of people.  One of our more outgoing team members got a job as a barista at Starbucks and met dozens of new people every day.  Our family joined the Boy Scouts with our sons and met people.  We went door-to-door and just simply met others.  We passed out Cokes in front of high scho

Six months before I went off to college as an 18-year old, I found myself embracing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and Leader and Forgiver. My life was transformed because of it.  I was a new man.  College was a blast as I developed new friendships, got involved in a dynamic church and college group and led out on my college campus.  Shortly after trusting in Jesus and starting to follow Him, I bought a Bible and the book “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” by a guy named Josh McDowell.  I gobbled up both.  Those two books gave me a love for God’s word and a love for apologetics (the ability to defend your position against rivals).   When I was in my senior year of college, I ran across a guy about three years older than me who had just spent about a year traveling around the country with Josh McDowell.  Josh offered young Christian leaders the chance to watch his ministry up close in exchange for setting up venues, selling resources and answering people’s questions.  I mentione