SermonSpice dot com

One of my favorite sermon resource sites is SermonSpice dot com.  I have been using them for a few years now, and I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful variety that I find at the site.
What’s neat is that SermonSpice is located just down the around about 60 miles in Fresno.  That really [...]

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Never Eat Alone

I just finished Keith Ferrazzi’s excellent book, Never Eat Alone.  I found out about the book from several references to it on LinkedIn’s excellent business networking site.  Still, you never know what you’re going to find when you buy a book based on others’ recommendations.
Almost from the first page of the book I was hooked.  I knew [...]

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“Let me buy you a coffee.”

Yesterday I was in line at Starbucks for my morning cup of coffee.  There were about four or five people in front of me, including the man with the stand-up collar.  He looked like a business man, and the collar was an accident.
I debated with myself whether to say anything.  Every once in a while [...]

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Business Connector

The Merced County Fair begins this week.  Every year the Fair sponsors a business connector for the three Chambers of Commerce:  Hispanic Chamber, County Chamber, and Greater Merced Chamber.  It is a really excellent way to meet people and network.

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Jim and Casper

I just finished Jim & Casper Go To Church, by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, and I would add it to my <em>must read</em> list for churches.  It is a keen observation at how churches look to outsiders—in this case an atheist named Matt Casper.  A quote from the Foreword lays out the direction of the [...]

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Missio Dei

Fred Peatross, from Huntington, West Virginia, is a friend of mine that I’ve never met in person.  Our relationship is facilitated by e-mail.  I live in California.  We became friends because of Jim Henderson who lives in Seattle, Washington.  West Virginia, California, and Washington—this is a great picture of our times.
Fred’s new book, Missio Dei, is [...]

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Four Weddings and a Funeral

Last November I met a pastor from Chicago’s Willow Creek Church.  We were both at a conference in Seattle.  He told me about a project he had started called “Wedding Pastors USA dot org.”  He also invited me to put my own page up on the site.
The impetus for Wedding Pastors is that many pastors are [...]

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Don’t rock the boat!

I had a friend once tell me that he thought you just needed to accept the way things are.  To acquiesce.  Knuckle under.  Give in.  Give up.
Those weren’t the exact words he used, but that was the bottom line of what he was saying.  After the conversation was over I felt profound sadness for him.

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Ask, Seek, Click

I just discovered an excellent web site in Cutting Edge, the quarterly church planting magazine of the Vineyard.  The site is the creation of the New York City Vineyard Church, and it was designed specifically for people of diverse background and belief in NYC.
The site features short video clips from members of the NYC church [...]

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Divine Ignorance

When I went through church planters “boot camp” everything was pretty theoretical.  In some ways it was like reading the travel books Bev and I used to prepare for a European trip.  It wasn’t until our feet were on Parisian streets that we really understood how it all worked.
Before we moved we were warned by [...]

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