One more video from the Q and A sessions at the Preach the Word Conference. I trust that you’ll find this content as helpful and hilarious as I did. And I hope you make it a priority to be in a church where

I think about the next sermon that’s ahead of me a lot—and I’m often asked about how I prepare a message. That’s why I want you to see this Q & A clip from a Preach the Word Conference held at Greg Laurie’s church.   In it, I am with Greg (one of my best [...]

In a Vertical Church, the “summa cum laude” is God’s glory coming down. That is what we long for more than anything else, to see God manifest His presence in our midst and do for us what we could never accomplish on our own. That is the goal of every service

Amazing how quickly a problem in the church can draw conversation and criticism from church members. I thought that headline would attract some readers, but isn’t that kinda sad? How about taking time to read about a pastor who is thrilled with and blessed by the Elders

Summer is prime time to bring our focus back to our families and strengthen them in the truth. If building your family on the truth were easy, everybody would be doing it—but many aren’t. Diligence and persistence are absolutely necessary. In the book of 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul was writing to a young pastor [...]

I have the tremendous blessing of being surrounded by a highly-motivated and highly-competitive staff, numbering some 400+. What I have observed is that if we are not intentional about selfless relationships that bless and encourage, we can find ourselves ‘writing checks’ we can’t cover and overdraft with the very people we care about most.

The psalmist said, “I have been young, and now am old . . .” (Psalm 37:25), and that is how I feel. “Fifty” is not over the hill, but it is surely down the road—and now that I am down that road I see

Been thinking a lot lately about the disasters that keep raging around us, the tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and devastation that have brought a tragic end to so many lives…

Have you ever gotten a glimpse of God’s handwriting? Ever been caught off guard by the revelation that God Almighty is far more visible and near than you have recognized in a long time? That’s where I’ve been lately—undone by the nearness of His glory.

Well, Kathy and I had a great day yesterday at the Acts 29 Midwest Quarterly. Breakfast with Darrin Patrick and his precious and devoted wife Aimee was filled w love and laughter and then over to the cool former -catholic (yeah) building they bought to meet with about 300+ fired up pastors and wives for [...]

Are you going to church this weekend?  A quick Google of “how many Americans attend church each week” indicates an interesting phenomenon; people lie. Follow that link if you have time. But to summarize, roughly 40% of Americans claim to have been in church at least once in the past week while the real number [...]

One of the things I have anguished most about through the years is staff departures.  Not so much the ones where God calls the staff elsewhere, though it is always hard to see people leave.  The hardest staff departures by far, are the ones where they ‘had to go.’  Performance or attitude or worst of [...]

Well… the blizzard that will wipe the Midwest USA off the map forever and result in the immediate freezing to death of half the population is coming (if you believe the media), so I thought I should get downtown and close to the place I will be preaching the next two mornings: Moody Bible Institute’s [...]

People often ask me if I have a life verse. If I do, it is Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart.” It’s kind of my testimony. I was going nowhere in a hurry and I found this [...]

Ok, been out of town, on the road for the Lord, etc.  So I haven’t been reviewing all comments personally.  This morning I had to post a number of comments questioning or criticizing me for mentioning Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary in a negative light in my recent video blog about the importance of seminary.  I [...]

One of my favorite events on the sporting calendar every year is the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. Every year since I can remember my friends and family fill out brackets and watch the upsets and buzzer beaters with excitement. The fun part is that you don’t have to know very much to be successful picking [...]

Do you send your students to camp? If you don’t, you should. God uses that time away from their regular routines, cell phones, and Facebook to speak to them in a powerful way. They hear His Word and respond to it. Here’s what God did through Camp Harvest in our students’ lives this winter.

My good friend and Walk in the Word board member Mark DeMoss wrote this great statement imagining the best possible outcome for Tiger Woods’ public statement today.  It should not surprise us that pagans don’t know how to repent, but it does shock me that they don’t get the elements of true remorse right even [...]

Hey: Thanks for coming back to this blog again and again; our audience is really growing. One of the things I want to accomplish here is to encourage pastors to keep “preaching the Word.” Popular today is the notion that to really reach people you have to some how ‘get beyond the Bible.’ We have [...]

One week ago today, I was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on an assessment trip for Churches Helping Churches. What I saw, what I smelled, what I felt, what I heard was almost overwhelming. It would have been easy to look around and wonder if this took God by surprise. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I [...]

Earlier this week, Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle and I were in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to assess the needs of the church in there. Check out this video footage of what we saw. Will you help the church? Go to ChurchesHelpingChurches.com.