Growing Deeper, Not Wider The church is three years old and meets in a strip mall. Their goal is to “grow deeper, not wider.” Everything about this church is the opposite of last week. Consider these four church discussion questions for Church...
Tips in Selecting Sermon Podcasts Carefully Choose the Messages You Hear I listen to a lot of podcasts each week. Since I work at home and my wife doesn’t, I often eat lunch by myself. This is an ideal time to listen to podcasts. I also listen...
Seek Positive Influences Be Careful Who You Invite into Your Life Who influences you? Who are the people that guide your decisions and inform your perspectives? We must be careful who we let into this most critical mental space of our lives, for...
The Seven Transformations of Peter DeHaan A Personal Story of Growing in Faith and Action [This personal essay first appeared in The Transformation Project: A West Michigan Word Weavers Anthology.] A caterpillar turns into a butterfly; a tadpole...
Are You Zealous about Church? We Must Do Better at Our Religious Meetings “Why do you so hate the church?” Shocked, I furrow my eyes and scowl at my friend. “I don’t hate church.” “But you’re always criticizing it in your blog.” This gives me...
Can You Be a Spiritual Mother to Someone? Some people don’t have biological offspring, but everyone can have spiritual descendants Paul wraps up his letter to the church in Rome with a long list of people Most of these names stream past our eyes...
Discover How to Grow Spiritually Our Spiritual Health Should Be Our Most Important Healthcare Concern Many people today worry about their health. This can relate to their physical health, mental health, or emotional health. They have less...
Do You Say Bold Prayers or Safe Prayers? God Often Wants to Delight Us, If Only We’ll Ask Too many people say safe prayers, such as, “God, please guide . . .” These are safe because no matter what happens, our confidence in God...
Do We Have an Inward Focus or an Outward Focus? Focusing on Ourselves Is Selfish While Focusing on Others Is Selfless There was a time when I headed up our church’s small group initiative. One of the things I learned was that small groups with...
Can We Make Up Our Own Religion? King Solomon Mixed Different Religious Practices and God Was Not Pleased In the Old Testament of the Bible, God tells his people to not marry those from other nations, folks who believe differently and worship...
