It has been awhile since our church had an All-Night Prayer Gathering. After coming off the 21 Days of Awakening, as the pastoral staff and I talked, we felt a greater sense of urgency with prayer. Usually when God prompts His people to prayer, it is because there is something that God wants […]
Leadership Lesson: Truth Always Helps
Photo by BusinessWeek One of the principles that I have been trying to teach our members is: “You will only be helped to the extent you tell the truth. In fact, this principle can be applied to many other areas. Whether it is on opposite-sex relationships, addictions or even accountability, unless a person […]
Leadership Lesson: Leadership is about Influence
Photo by Livesteez I don’t know how many of you have been keeping up with the news, but the situation with the Republican Party’s Chairman, Michael Steele and talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is good material for lessons on leadership. In the wake of Michael Steele’s interview by CNN’s D.L. Hughley, Steele tried […]
Leadership Lesson: Making Wise Decisions
Photo by entrepreneur4life Every leader has to make decisions. Leaders lead, therefore decisions have to be made by the person leading. But all leaders know that there are times when decisions are not so easy. Sometimes decisions are complex. Sometimes decisions will entail a win-lose. Sometimes decisions will hurt others. Sometimes decisions will […]
The Beauty of Skylines
Photo by Richard Seaman USA Today published an article called, 10 Great Places to Study Skylines of the World. The list was created by James Blakeway, who is the author of “Skylines of the World.” I have always had a slight artistic side in me; therefore when that side mixes with my […]
Leadership Lesson: The Discipleship Cycle
Photo by Apprenticeship Advisory Committee There is a principle that is espoused by many leadership and discipleship gurus. It is simply – I do, you watch; I do, you help; You do, I help; You do, I watch; You now show someone else. It is a pretty easy concept but many people fail to follow […]
Anger Can Kill You (Literally)
Dr. Rachel Lampert from Yale University recently did a study that appeared in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. In her study, she gathered 62 patients who had some sort of heart disease and implantable heart defibrillators (ICD). She had the patients recount an angry moment in their lives […]
Lent 2009
It is about that time of the year again where we prepare ourselves for the week that leads up to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Every year it has been good to fast (give up something) for 40 days in order to prepare our hearts for the Passion Week. For some reason, this Lenten season has […]
Bollywood vs. Hollywood
AP Photo On Monday it was awesome to read that on the 81st Academy Awards (Oscars) “Slumdog Millionaire” won 8 Oscars. It is a great achievement, especially knowing that the some of the actors and actresses were directly from India. Christina and I have not watched it yet (it has been […]
Kids’ Piano Recital
Yesterday, our family headed out to the kids’ piano recital. It was a great seeing them practice all throughout the week to memorize their piece. We were so proud of them and all their hard work. The recital was made up of all the students of teacher Amber who is doing an awesome job of […]
Global ACCESS Retreat 2009
Tonight we are going to start the Global ACCESS (GA) Retreat. We started this ministry to international students because over the years we have noticed that more international students were coming out to our church. The needs are somewhat similar to any college student but yet they are very different because […]
Is Racism in the Eye of the Beholder?
Cartoon by Sean Delonas The above cartoon has been in the center of some controversy. The cartoonist, Sean Delonas who draws for the New York Post and Col Allan, the editor-in-chief have both vehemently denied that there was a racial overtone (comparing President Obama to a chimpanzee). Many people would ask, […]
My Girl Scout Daisy
The family and I went to Karissa’s Girl Scout special gathering. Some of the local troops in the Ann Arbor area got together to do various presentations for the parents as well as the other Girl Scouts. It was great seeing Karissa learning some good values of what it means to be a woman (or […]
Leadership Lesson: Walking in Their Shoes
Photo by Felix Carroll It is interesting to me that today it was announced that President Obama would authorize deploying “more than 17,000 troops to Afghanistan.” Barack Obama during his presidential campaign was strongly in favor of bringing the troops back home from Iraq, but now he will be sending some […]