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The coronavirus may have shut the doors of churches on Sunday mornings, but it has not stopped the church from meeting. It all started when I went on a camping trip the weekend that the quarantine was initiated. For the first five minutes of the car ride, we gave everyone permission to say whatever they wanted about Covid, and then for the rest of the trip it was banned to speak of it. Instead of dwelling on coronavirus, we embraced the outdoors, explored scenic byways, hiked to the top of a mountain, wound our way up to a waterfall, and lingered long around campfires. All the while, we mingled between story-telling, joking, and talking about life and Jesus. The serious, the sacred, the lightheartedness, and the laughter became inseparable. We breathed the fresh air, and also our hearts breathed afresh from the mutual encouragement of the others. We watched the evening campfire die while knowing that a fire had been kindled in our souls. Upon our return Saturday evening, we hadn’...

Not too long ago, I had a young woman living with me who was a delight to be around. And I really think it was because she enjoyed the simplest of things. A bag of hot chips from the grocery store and a walk in the park could absolutely make her day. She also loved to get out and do things with me — church, small group, the movies, a Super Bowl party. We regularly ate dinner together, and at least once a week we would pull our groceries together and cook. Sometimes after dinner in the lull of the conversation, she would contentedly announce, “Today has been a good day.” As if that’s all that needed to be said. And perhaps it was.  A little more recently, a different friend asked me if I had had a good day, to which I gave a half-hearted, kind-of-sort-of yes. Because he is kind, he followed up with a great question. “What makes a good day?” How do you measure that?  “I think it has to do with the conversations we have,” I said. “Good conversations make a good day.” An...

We are living in a historic moment — do we realize this? Coronavirus is literally history in the making. Are  we going to watch Netflix while the world is changing? Or will be found leaning into the opportune moment, pressing into the Lord to ask him what he thinks about all this? I see so many potential good things coming out of this unique season.  People have free time now more than ever before, for one. The fast-paced, schedule-booked, average American is forcibly been slowed down and isolated. The absolute best way to spend this extra time is to linger with the Lord and abide in Christ. No longer do people have the excuse that they “don’t have time” to pray or study the Word. If the people of God use this margin of time to abide in Christ, fruit will be produced — That’s the promise of John 15. And the fruit that will be produced could be the catalyst of personal and massive revival.   People have also been separated from the privilege of attending church. I...

John 15 talks about connecting to God through abiding and connecting to others through loving, but if we stop right there we have stopped too short.  Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last.” Have you ever wondered what lasting fruit is? We don’t have lasting fruit here on planet earth; all our fruit spoils and rots. But there is a fruit that is everlasting, and Jesus appoints us to go and bear it. There isn’t much in this life that is eternal anyway. We know that God is eternal, we know that His Word is eternal, and we know that God gives our souls eternal life when we believe in Jesus. So this must be what lasting, eternal fruit is all about: connecting the eternal God and the eternal Word of God with the souls of men. Connect with God. Connect with others. Connect others to God.   This has been God’s purpose since the beginning of time. From Genesis to Revelation we see God pursuing his p...

When I first moved to Africa, I wanted to change the world. I thought I knew what missions was about since I had been on nine short term trips which obviously (sarcasm here) must qualify you as somewhat of an expert. Boy was I in for a wake up call. I quickly learned that short-term missions are about short-term projects; long-term missions are about long-term relationships. My plan had been to come and get stuff done, you know, change the world. I didn’t realize that the realest change happens in the long-suffering work of building authentic relationships. Here’s how it happened to me. After the honeymoon phase of living in Africa wore off, I found myself waking up in the mornings and staring at the ceiling, having no earthly idea of what I was supposed to be doing that day. I had no plans. I had no 8:00 to 5:00 job. No supervisor setting expectations for me. I had no hobbies (at least not ones that I could do in West Africa), no friends, no idea how to spend my time. I barely ha...

When Jesus talks about abiding in John 15, what does that actually mean? What does abiding look like, and how do we do it?  One very practical way is spending time with him. Just like we connect to other people by spending time with them, we connect to Christ by spending time with him. Growing up, I heard this referred to as “quiet time” or “devotionals”. In French, the term for this concept is “culte personnel”, which translates personal worship . So we have corporate worship, and we have personal worship. We very much need both.  Generally speaking, most Christians have a pretty good handle on the importance of corporate worship and make an effort to meet with the body of Christ weekly. I wonder though how many Christians see the value of personal worship and make the effort to practice that discipline daily. Because here is the thing: You can’t expect to get all the spiritual nourishment you need out of one hour on Sunday when you need the daily abiding that comes from...

Who can say, “I am completely happy with the pace of my life right now?” Like you are just one hundred percent pleased with how you spend all your time and wouldn’t do a single thing differently? Yeah, notice that I’m not raising my hand on that one either. What I am writing to you about here is not from the voice of an expert, but from the voice of a learner. God is teaching me a lot about rhythms, pace, rest, and abiding...which I want to share with you not as a teacher but as a fellow journeyman on a difficult path. Our culture values connectedness, no doubt. We connect online, we connect on social media, we connect all our devices to one another. We connect at our local gym, book club, coffee shop. We connect our kids to all available extracurriculars. Before you know it, connectedness turns into activity overload, commitment overload, choice overload, debt overload, expectation overload, fatigue overload, hurry overload.  Jesus also has something to say about connectedn...