In two weeks, our youngest will return home from Basic Training. Back in the Spring, she enlisted in the Army Reserves, and her Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri began in late Summer. After three and a half months away, she will return home a different person. She will return home a soldier. …
In the ever changing landscape of youth ministry, what makes a great youth pastor today? Has it changed in the past few decades? I frequently receive emails from churches looking for a youth pastor. Theirs has either transitioned into another role in the church, moved on to greener pastures, or has left ministry altogether. There …
Have you ever heard the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none”? I resonate deeply with this phrase — not so much because I’m good at a lot of things, but more because I feel like I haven’t really mastered anything. I like working on projects with my hands, so I’ve dabbled in building …
Completely restored He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Mark 3:5 NIV When Jesus healed this man with a deformed, shriveled hand, his hand was completely restored. Such a powerful …
XJ, eXperience Jesus, is Sonlife’s new disciple-making event for high school students in partnership with Moody Bible Institute in the summer of 2023. And while XJ is new, its roots go back over 35 years.
In Live Like Jesus, Sonlife’s founder, Dann Spader, does an excellent job diving deep into the rich truth to be found in Jesus’ prayer for the disciples in John 17. In this study, Dann uncovers seven disciplines of a disciple-maker, all revealed in Jesus’ words as He prayed for His followers. “After Jesus said this, …
In Mark 5, we read a series of encounters with Jesus that put the power of God on full display. After the dramatic calming of the raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, displaying God’s power over nature, over grave danger, Jesus arrives on “the other side.” The Gerasenes was His destination, and delivering the …
The Synoptic Gospels- Matthew, Mark & Luke- leave a gap between Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and His rejection in Nazareth, giving the mistaken impression that little time passed between Jesus beginning His ministry at His baptism and then calling the Four to be fishers of people. John 1-4 fills in that gap, telling us …
LUKE 11 “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”” Luke 11:1 NIV There are times the disciples asked Jesus to explain something, like a parable, but this is the only time it’s …
This Summer, I decided to journal through the Gospels, a chapter a day, for 90 days. The four Gospels have 89 chapters, and if you throw in Acts 1 with Jesus’ Ascension, you have an even 90 chapters to journal through in June, July and August. Here’s one of my recent journal entries from Matthew …