My familiy is spending a few days this week at the Annual Meetings of the Baptist General Conference. It is always a great time for us. I really enjoy not just our annual meetings, but I also really respect our leaders in the BGC. This year, our meetings are in Denver, so we are enjoying the …
Homosexuality and the Bible
I just completed my series of messages on the Bible (see sermon series Shhhh! God's Talking) and during the series I spent a good amount of time dealing with tough questions of the Bible and tough questions about the faith, but one of the toughest questions that I had to deal with is God's take on …
Password Generator Button
One of the coolest things on the net that I know of right now is something called a "bookmarklet." A bookmarklet is generally a web-link that you "drag" to the "bookmark toolbar" of your browser. I'm not sure how well it works in Internet Explorer, because I have long sinse left IE in the dust. …
I’m going to be featured in Wheaton’s calendar!
This is really cool. I got an email from a girl this week saying that I'm going to be featured in Wheaton's next Daily Events Calendar! Check this out. Dear Jeff, My name is Emily Louise Zimbrick '05 and I am writing to you from the Wheaton Alumni Association about a fun opportunity. …
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FBFI and Piper
I noticed at this fellow's blog that there is some awareness among Christians that the BGC is "endorsing" open theism. Here's a quick link to the blog that clued me in. ... centuri0n: FBFI and Piper I just have to quickly respond to that. First of all, if you don't know what open theism is, you …
My Most Controversial Message
For the last two hours, I have been sitting here in my office pondering an issue that will form the basis for what I feel is going to be my most controversial message to date that I've given in my current church. That's right, I plan on Sunday to deal with the issue of women in ministry and the …
Lafayette Initiative Begins!
My wife and I are now officially recognized as church planters with Midwest Church Planting, a division of the Midwest Baptist Conference! Officially, our endeavor is now known as the Lafayette Initiative, and we have just mailed out our first round of fund-raising letters and proposals. If you …
Every Member Ministry
The Inside Track Jan 05 - Leadership Connection This article describes a method that one church is using to mobilize their members into ministry. The article describes how they use a two-stage process to help people identifiy their passions and pursue them in the context of ministry. The article …
The Bible Can Be Trusted
NWBC-027-03 The Bible is the single most accurate ancient document in existence today! Now that's a big claim! Nevertheless, it's true. The Bible is spiritually reliable, historically reliable, textually reliable, and reliable in many other ways too. In this message, I try to explain exactly why we …
God Wants You to Hear Him
NWBC-027-02 It's true. God really wants you to hear him. The Bible isn't an esoteric , spiritually difficult book like many have sometimes thought. Sure, there are some editions that have ancient Shakespeare-like language, but God doesn't speak King James English. God speaks to our hearts by …
Jesus is like a box of chocolates
For the past week, I've been here in Green Lake, Wisconsin, at a conference with many different pastors from all over the midwest. Now, this is a perfect opportunity for me because my son's school is currently doing a fundraiser where he (really his mother and I) is supposed to sell a box of …
Can You Hear Him?
NWBC-027-01 This is the first message of the series. It's just an introduction to the whole series, but in it I identify three important truths about the Bible: You can hear God's voice in your Bible. You can understand your Bible. You can live by your Bible. I also deal with this important …
Shhhh! God’s Talking!
NWBC-027 In this series of messages, I'm going to explore what it means to hear God's voice through the pages of your Bible. We'll talk about the specifics of how to read and understand the Bible better. We'll talk about how we got the Bible. We'll deal with difficult passages too. One of the key …
There are no unplanned pregnancies
Yesterday was Mother's Day 2005, and I preached a message on three women in the beginning of the gospel of Luke---Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna. While I was preparing for the message; though, God helped me to understand something that I had never really seen before. There are no unplanned …
A “Creative Director” at a church
Here's the article I can't believe this church has a staff person who is officially the church's "Creative Director." It's a really cool idea, especially because this fellow has produced some really cool stuff. Check out the article for some links to more images. What's most cool about it is that …
Leave the church?
I'm not even done with this article yet, but I can already sense that it's worth putting up here. You won't regret taking the time to read it. Detoxing from Church …