Search found 20 matches

I loved the movie Amazing Grace. I went home that night after watching it and I couldn't go to bed. I stayed up for hours praying. I cried in repentance for how little I have felt [or done] for the ...

I believe gate keeping is a job I am to share with my elders / board. It is a job that we discuss at staff meetings, and with our small group leaders. So you would think that in the church family I ...

I wonder if it is "defying the open jaws" of the Lion of Judah, as much as it is jumping into them? When we pray "Your will be done" aren't we praying "God if you want to cru ...

I think the picture on the first page of this devotion is excellent. I've never seen one like it. It's terrible and beautiful. I actually spent some quiet time thinking through the picture. The ey ...

I appreciate the lesson for leadership in today's meditation. I appreciate the responsibility of recognizing threats to church life. However I feel this same lesson needs to be discipled into every ...

"You can't afford losses dues to a 'failure of imagination'" (p.116). This line reminded me of some poetic and gritty wisdom in Shane Claiborne's "Irresistible Revolution": " ...

My thoughts through this devotional today lingered on the word "tenacious". Is my concern for my congregation, my drive to advocate on their behalf, my prayer life for them defined with the ...

Abram and Simon received new names. We apparently will receive one (Revelation 2:17). Why? What's in a name? Perhaps that's not the right question. Perhaps the better question is 'why is a new nam ...

I met with a pastor not too long ago who said that "visiting is not [his] gift, so I stick to ministry that is within my gift mix: preaching, teaching, administration". I asked if pastoral ...

Ezekiel 34:6-12, and Numbers 27:17 remind us of the plight of shepherd-less sheep: scattered, wandering, and no one "looked" or cared. Implied in the Ezekiel passage is a time period, a pro ...

I was surprised by the accounts given about lost sheep in today's meditation - I guess hearing the severity of concern for even one lost one was of most interest. It is a beautiful thing to read of p ...

Read through a thoughtful response in the forum to today's devotional - read it mostly because of the title "our Mother in Heaven"! I was at a funeral service not too long ago where the min ...

It occurs to me that I have friends that I particularly need in certain circumstances. I need handy ones often, I need the ones that make me belly laugh often, I need the ones that ask me tough quest ...

I think the two passages Laniak cited to connect feeding to leading make a very good argument: Jesus asking Peter if he loves Him, and the story of the five thousand. I am aware that as a sheep I req ...

"Greener pastures" seems inevitable in ministry: if we only had more ministry money, if only everyone showed up on Sunday, if only I could pastor in that city... Greener pastures thinking i ...