LESSON #10: SPIRITUAL WARFARE IS REAL.I grew up in a smorgasborg of church flavors.  I was baptized as an infant in a covenant church, attended baptist and community churches, then went to college at a Pentecostal school. All of these groups approach the spiritual realities of our lives differently, some don't mention spirits or demons at all, while others find one under every rock and sniffle.  When we first planted the church, we read all kinds of accounts about "weirdos" that come walk into new church plants.  Quite honestly, I never took these stories too seriously, until one walked into ours.  Briefly, within the first six months of launching our church, a woman walked in. She was 40 but looked as if she was 65. After a Sunday or two she shared openly with the pastors about her "struggles".  She claimed to be a believer who had struggled with suicidal [...]

LESSON #9: IT IS HARD TO TO WALK THE LINEI wrote this article some time ago. It is, I think, about what it means to live out our faith in the tension. Typically, we're more apt to live out our faith with ease resulting in either in liberal indulgence or legalism. We are supposed to walk the line between self-indulgence and self-righteousness...it's called self-denial...a life like Jesus. But self-denial is much more than just depriving yourself of pleasure or some comfort in the name of "sacrifice". Jesus said we must deny ourselves AND take up the cross. Self-denial is a life in pursuit of the glory of God in all things as opposed to my own glory (which is my default mode). If everything is about God's glory, we will end up doing things are are difficult, intellectually offensive, emotionally uncomfortable, but ultimately satisfying.Helen Keller once said the ‘the highest [...]

LESSON #8:  NOT EVEN JESUS HELPED EVERYONE.There is a tendency for pastors to pretend they are superman.  I used to wonder what pastors did with all of their time.  I imagined them sitting like some old-school Rabbi spending every waking hour studying scrolls.  Getting paid to read the Bible didn't seem like that hard of a job.  Then I became a pastor.  I realized very quickly that a pastor is synonomous with "brokeness magnet".  It's like there is an invisible tractor beam hidden somewhere in my body that pulls everyone who is sick and sore right to you.  A simple coffee quickly turns into an open confessional where the person suddenly feels comfortable sharing every dark secret that has plagued them for the last 20 years.  As a young pastor, I too believed I could help everyone and tried my hand at wearing the savior cape (and still do sometimes) to no [...]