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Welcome, Grady!
Today [Wednesday, ADF] was a special day. For the first time since Lyssabeth, a new baby was born into our family. Jeremiah’s niece, Lauryn, and her husband Chayce, welcomed little Grady to the world today. It is so fun to see those 10 perfect toes and sweet little lips and cheeks! And, we are thankful for modern medicine as Grady has had to have a little help keeping his oxygen up today. If you know me personally or read my posts, you know that my mind tends to spiral quickly. I was thinking about the joy of Grady’s coming and then the thought hit me of what a hypocritical world…
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Thank God for Squirming Kids: Why Congregations Should Reconsider Children’s Church
It seems to be happening in more and more places. It is about time for the sermon to begin, and a boatload of parents carry or walk their precious children to a different part of the building and then return for the lesson. The kids are in “children’s church” and the adults are in what is sometimes jokingly called “big church.” Today, I want to urge congregations to rethink this approach. Typically, when people want to start (or defend) “children’s church,” they give the same couple of reasons. Admittedly, both are understandable, but both also need to be thought through carefully. Some suggest that children’s church gives young people a…
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What’s the Temperature Where You Worship?
Do you have “thermostat wars” where you worship? Regardless of the season of the year, it is not unusual for there to be complaints about the temperature in places of worship. Some of us may have even seen a number of people walk by the appropriate thermostat and set it to their individual preferences. I even heard of one place where the active thermostat was hidden away and some “dummy” ones were placed where people could think that they were accomplishing something by adjusting them. It is remarkable what we will do to benefit our physical comfort. Did you know that there are people who are more concerned than you are about…
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I Beg Your Pardon
I don’t remember how many years ago it was when I first heard the song Rose Garden, sung by Lynn Anderson. It has a really catchy tune and in part the chorus lyrics said: “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometime.” I think the reason this song comes to my mind on occasion is simply because the words to this chorus are so true. Life is like that – some days are sunny and full of good things, but others are cloudy, gloomy, and full of trouble. Life isn’t a rose garden! Often, we may leave the impression…
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Step One in Evangelism
I have not played golf in over 20 years, but when I played a little in high school, I was awful. Still, I remember the high levels of concentration needed to think about, address, and hit the shot. A golfer in Florida recently took that concentration to fairly extreme levels, though. As he was preparing to hit a shot from the fairway, a seven-foot-long alligator walked right by him, less than ten feet away, and the golfer never really noticed. The alligator literally walked in front of the golfer, who just walked up to the ball and took his shot while ignoring the huge creature. May I take that story…
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Why Can’t We All Just Get Along
I don’t like conflict. In fact, I really do everything I can to avoid it at all times. So when it comes to matters of faith you can imagine that it becomes even more important to me to get along with people as much as possible. How do you feel about getting along with people with regard to matters of faith? The longer I live the more I realize how difficult it is to get along with everyone in the religious community. This is not a God problem, it’s a man problem. There is perfect harmony and unity with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the creation is subject…
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What Is a “Real Man”?
Recently, I was asked to speak on the following topic: Rearing Boys to be Men As I prepared the presentation, I thought that it might be a good idea to define some terms. One of the words that, obviously, was pertinent to the discussion is the word “man.” It seems to me that we have let our society define that word in ways that are, in no way, helpful. It is my contention that, in particular, the entertainment and sports community have fed us a lot of lies about what a “real man” is. As part of my research (and as a part of the presentation), I considered a couple of…
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Roots to Fly
I know many of you are thinking that I have messed up two well-known, and related phrases about raising children. The adage says “There are two gifts we should give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” As you may have realized by now, the Tatum household is about to change. Our oldest is headed to college this weekend so we are doing a lot of reflecting on the short 18 years we have been blessed to have him in our home. He is the first of his generation to leave the nest and, as with many firsts, there is a lot of trepidation. Granted, we are sending…
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Reconnect: A Retreat for Preachers and Preachers’ Wives
Every couple needs time to step away from the normal run, run, run of life and think about their relationship. Preachers and their wives are no different. That’s why we are excited to let you know about a special 2-day retreat being held in October that is exclusively for preachers and their wives. The retreat is called “Reconnect,” and we are thrilled to be part of the planning of it. Several months ago, our friends Josh and Amanda Ketchum met with us about this idea, and we have been working on it ever since. Today, we are proud to unveil this retreat and hope that you will encourage your preacher…
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In My Father’s House
Sundays are important. For my entire life, I have been able to count on Sundays. I knew every Sunday morning and evening my parents would be taking me to worship. Over the years this meant different worship locations and sometimes a different drive to get there. Once I got married, my wife also being a Christian, the only thing about Sundays that was primarily different was that by this time I was also given the duties of preaching. But we still drove to worship. And as the kids came along a new tradition was born… I decided that on the way to worship we would sing a few songs of…
