Feeling like an outsider is always tough. I remember how stressful it was on the first day of going to a new school. Would there be anyone that I know? Will I make friends? Will people like me? Coming to church for the first time can feel like that too. The walk from the car to the door can be a heart-rending experience.
We all want to belong, to connect to others in meaningful ways. We are created for relationships. One of the greatest fears in life is that of being alone…
What difference does my life make? Will it matter that I walked the earth? What legacy will I leave? Will anything in the world be better because I was here? At the end of it all will my life have mattered. These are questions that all of us ponder at times. In moments when we gather ourselves and reflect on days gone by and our years yet to come, we wonder about our contribution to the world, God’s kingdom, our family and just in general…
If you were to go to a mall or park, stop passers-by and ask them what is most important in life, most would answer – ‘to be happy.’ Happiness is one of the most fundamental of human needs. We all want to experience joy, we all love to laugh. We want to surround ourselves with things that increase our happiness – or at least decrease our sorrow. And why not? It feels better to be happy than sad…
As a pastor, I have spent a good deal of time visiting people in the hospital. Sometimes it’s a happy occasion – like the birth of a child. Most of the time it’s a difficult season for someone enduring moments of pain, fear and possibly death. I always find it hard to have words to say in those moments, words that don’t sound like a time-worn cliche. I want to make everything better. I want it all to just go away. I want to promise them that they will be healed – but I can’t. I’m not God. I don’t get to make these decisions.
I am a firm believer that we have a reason for everything we do. We don’t always recognize what our reasons are, but we have them. Often, we are motivated by a deep sense of need that we can’t define or describe, but we know it’s there. All human need can be defined at its heart by five universal needs. These are needs that are common to all of us; that get to the marrow of what drives so much of what we think, feel and do. The better we can understand those issues and the passions that lie beneath them, the better we can understand our own motives.
Continuing my earlier post, the 3rd critical question that The Chapel needed to ask itself was, “How can we build an unstoppable church?” As we processed this question, we had two significant realizations that led us to one clear conclusion.
The ...more
Earlier this week I participated in a conference for churches attempting to break through the barriers that are holding them back. My first message, “Church Unstoppable”, centered around three important questions. These were questions that our church asked itself during ...more
Christians come from a variety of backgrounds and traditions, each with different perspectives on prayer. One of the questions that usually comes to the forefront when people from different streams of Christianity come together is who should we offer our ...more
In the fall of 1839, a handful of Christians gathered at the old red brick Presbyterian church in downtown Chicago to pray about the issue of slavery. It was a largely forgettable evening by almost anyone’s standards. Yet somehow, the ...more
I received one of my most helpful pieces of advice at a gathering of Christian leaders some years ago. Joe Stowell, former president of Moody Bible Institute, made the comment that “time and truth go hand in hand.” The idea ...more
