Maybe you love getting up in the morning. If so, then this past weekend was no trouble for you even though you had to spring forward. My daughter, who is not great at waking up in the morning, asked this question – “Why can’t we fall back both times?” Maybe she can start some legislation to that end. I’m sure she would get some support. We are all limited by time. We live inside a framework that was chosen for us by our Creator. Read Genesis 1 and you will see that God divided earthly life into days and months and years. We get accustomed to this framework. Therefore, in…

We live in the information age, but it also seems that we live in the age of polls and surveys. Constantly, we are deluged with information telling us what percentage of people do this or how many folks believe that. It is virtually impossible to keep up with all of these results. This article is not meant to say that these surveys and studies have no value. They certainly have their place and they are very helpful. However, with the seeming avalanche at which all these numbers come at us, it can be so overwhelming that we struggle make sense of it all. If we are honest, so many of…

This coming Sunday I plan on preaching about whether or not each one of us is confident in our salvation. We can be. But that doesn’t mean we are. Closely related to it is this question about where we are with the Lord. In some ways the question is the same question. But the focus is different. The sermon I will be preaching will specifically encourage all who hear the message to get right with God. It will include God’s plan for their salvation as it has been given to us in the Bible. The focus of this question today that I want you to think about is slightly different.…

It happened in August of 1966. I had graduated from high school in the spring of that year and had a summer term of college already under my belt. My future wife was about to begin her senior year in high school. Somewhere about this time, the couple who would later become my father-in-law and my mother-in-law must have taken leave of their senses. Come to think of it, my parents must not have been thinking too clearly either. For whatever reason, Donna and I were allowed to make a trip to St. Louis all by ourselves. (By the way; I did use the correct word – allowed! This all…

I enjoy most Saturdays. While they are busy at times, they usually busy with events and activities that are different from the rest of the week. We might work on a project around the house, or just take it easy. We might go do something fun as a family, or just sort of hang out. But Saturday evenings, to me, are one of my favorite times of the week. I will admit, as a preacher, my nerves are already kicking in on Saturday night because the text of my sermon is running through my brain at warp speed. I often struggle to fall asleep, simply because my mind struggles to…

I bet by the title of this article you are at least reading the first sentence to see where this is going. Let me tell you first where this is not going. This is not going in the direction that is going to malign the church of our Lord. This is not going to be a rejection of the old paths. This is not going to be a 21st Century, “I am smarter and more enlightened than the people who lived 100 years ago,” type of article that I see being written by so many of our younger preachers today. What this is going to be is honest. And honestly,…

I’ve lived long enough to see all sorts of techniques that have been (and still are) intended to help individual congregations of the Lord’s church grow. My association with and membership in the church spans the time when personal evangelism was done in “cottage meetings” to the time when it is now more fashionable to do this in coffee houses. I’ve seen “joy busses” arrive and leave. Sheet sermons have given way to PowerPoint presentations.   I have not “seen it all,” but I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen congregations grow and thrive. I’ve seen congregations “swell” and “atrophy” (gain members from other congregations and lose members to other congregations and/or the world). I’ve seen the…