Blog

Mission in the Age of COVID-19

What does it mean to be on mission in the context of “social distancing,” fear of getting sick, or furthering the virus’ spread? What about the numerical gathering guidelines? Is the church online the new church gathered? These are ongoing questions. Granted, no one has a crystal ball to know what will unfold. We do know God is sovereign, and in control of everything, and not surprised by anything. We can fully trust in this tremendous comforting truth!

Soul Whisperer Ministry Report: Looking Back and Forward

Looking back, 2019 was a tremendous year for our ministry. Let me just say, anything good that occurred came from God’s hand. Him, not me. I praise Jesus for his grace, and each of these open doors and answered prayers. Here are my top 5 highlights: 1. Filming the ReMission Video Series in North Carolina. […]

Tracking Success: Why You Must Be Clear on How to Get There

Early in my ministry a mentor talked to me about the two tracks. He said: “You have the educational track, and you have the experience track.” Most aspiring ministers, (though this is not a biblical prerequisite), have thought of those two rails as developmental guides. If we widen the scope to include other arenas, most pursuits involve […]

5-STAR BOOK REVIEW: THE MIND OF A MISSIONARY

(Note: Being sensitive to missions’ anonymity concerns, I received the author’s permission for this public review). Great books have a way of stirring the heart and imagination, and moving the pendulum on how we think and where we need to go. David Joannes’s, The Mind of a Missionary, succeeds in all these ways. You might […]

The Iceberg Slicing at the Hull of the Church

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to seeing what is occurring within churches, that is creating our current mission malaise, it takes an illustration to stick in our minds and stir our imaginations. In this blog, I bring you a principle I developed in my book ReMission, which seeks to raise the […]

On Ambition: Johnny Depp’s Depth

In one of my training classes a college student inquired about how to reach his highly ambitious friend. How could he talk to a person who is driven for success? Does the gospel have appeal to someone like him? So, we sat and deliberated for a time about his dream-driven mentality. Soon, ideas began to percolate about where conversations […]

Where the Wind Blows (How God Leads Us) – Part 2

The question of seeing God’s ultimate leading in our lives has profound ramifications. This second part (Part 1) espouses on the weathervane words of Jesus in John 3: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born […]

3 Lessons on God’s Leading (How to Catch His Wind)

I asked my dad to take this photo, because lo and behold the weathervane above me is one of my own creations (7th grade metal shop). To this day, it still works. I don’t know what it was that led me to choose that project, an instrument to detect the way the wind is blowing, […]

The Church’s Tipping Point for Change

Standing by a melting glacier (Alaska) felt like a profound experience. Huge geological forces like these have a way of setting my mind in motion on what they illustrate metaphorically. As a mission guy, I could not resist penning some paralleling thoughts on today’s shrinking North American church. Like global warming, we should not close […]

How a Small Group Out-Missioned a Whole Church

Recently, I have had three pastors convey how unfruitful their church has been evangelistically. One was candid enough to admit that their 120 plus church had not reached even one person with the gospel—all year. The other two scenarios were not much better. When you see inclose what is actually happening (or not happening), the tale that I […]