Five Lessons from getting UNstuck
June 18, 2009 – 6:00 am | No Comment

Several weeks ago, I shared a post entitled, “My own experience with getting UNstuck,” and in the midst of that story, I promised this follow up post.
As I shared in my message last weekend, one …

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Church leadership

Random thoughts and reflections on the joy and struggle of seeking to be a leader God can use.

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Here you’ll find all posts related to upcoming messages or follow up information from my recent sermons.

Saturday Night

These posts are geared directly to those who regularly attend our Saturday Night service at First UMC Mansfield.

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Transformation Journey

See the latest posts and news for the Bible study I teach each Tuesday night.

Transformation Journey »

July 1, 2009 – 6:00 am | No Comment

mountainlake

Last night, our Transformation Journey class focused on the books of Isaiah, and officially marked our turn to the “prophetic books” of the Old Testament. We talked about Isaiah being referred to as, “The Prince of the Prophets,” because of the amount of times he is quoted by the New Testament writers. Jerome, the early Church Father, writing in the fourth century had this to say about Isaiah:

“He [Isaiah] should be called an evangelist rather than a prophet because he describes all the mysteries of Christ and the Church so clearly that you would think he is composing a history of what has already happened rather than prophesying about what is to come.”

Jerome, Church Father, 4th Century

Handouts and slides from last night’s session can be downloaded below.

Isaiah  Handout
Isaiah Slides

To listen to the audio from last night or any previous week online, please click here.

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Thoughts on Isaiah 53
June 26, 2009 – 7:54 am | No Comment
Thoughts on Isaiah 53

We read Isaiah 53 yesterday in the Transformation Journal, the most often quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament writings. Here are some of my personal reflections.
It’s hard to make any observations about this …

Holy War & the Bible
June 25, 2009 – 6:00 am | No Comment
Holy War & the Bible

By far, the most frequent question I have received from people since we started using the Transformation Journal has been in reference to trying to understand the violence in the Old Testament. We spend the …

Song of Songs Session Wrapup
June 24, 2009 – 7:14 am | No Comment
Song of Songs Session Wrapup

Last night, our Transformation Journey class focused on the books of Song of Songs. As I said last night at the beginning of the session, this is a really tough book because it is so …

Eight years ago today
June 23, 2009 – 10:28 am | No Comment
Eight years ago today

On June 23rd, 2001, at about 4:05 p.m., the back doors of the sanctuary opened and my bride started to walk down the aisle. We were surrounded by a sea of friends and family that …

Saturday Men’s Group
June 19, 2009 – 7:29 am | 2 Comments
Saturday Men’s Group

Almost every Saturday morning, I try to get to my office early for some personal quiet time before I’m joined by a group of young men from our Church at 7:30 a.m. who meet for …

Proverbs/Ecclesiastes Session Wrapup
June 17, 2009 – 7:59 am | No Comment
Proverbs/Ecclesiastes Session Wrapup

Last night, our Transformation Journey class focused on the books of Proverbs & Ecclesiastes. It was great to be back in the saddle after a week off, but I hope we don’t have to cover …

Summer Reading List
June 17, 2009 – 6:00 am | No Comment
Summer Reading List

So far, this has been an odd start to the summer for me.
Our Senior Pastor has been on vacation and I’ve have the privilege of filling in for him during our weekend services. I’ve really …

A few summer pics…
June 15, 2009 – 6:00 am | No Comment
A few summer pics…

Since I’m missing my family who left town for the weekend to spend some time at Grandma & Grandpa’s, I thought I would share two of my favorite pics so far of our summer fun. …

Pray for our High School Students
June 12, 2009 – 8:57 am | No Comment
Pray for our High School Students

Today, several of our High School ministry staff headed out for Clarksdale, Mississippi for our High School Mission Trip. On Sunday they will be joined by 12 vans full of High School students and adults …

Another story of Getting UNstuck
June 10, 2009 – 6:19 am | One Comment
Another story of Getting UNstuck

Last weekend, when we opened up our UNstuck message series, I invited our Church to share with me some of their own stories of “getting UNstuck” in their lives. If you would also like to …