CHALLENGED AUTHORITY

Almost 50 years ago, in my first few months of pastoring, I was sitting around a table with five other young and inexperienced pastors. We were in a small meeting room at Montana State University in Billings, Montana. Seated with us was Jerry Cook, pastor of East Hill...

OUR PLACE OF REST

In my normal morning routine, I am awake before the first light of the morning appears in the sky. In those pre-dawn mornings, I can hear birds begin to sing as they anticipate the coming dawn.  Recently, I’ve been listening to instrumental worship music to...

THERE IS MORE GOING ON

There is more to a verse than just its opening line.  Surrounding passages of Scripture give us a broader view of what the verse is addressing. Take the first part of Psalm 46:10, for example: “Be still and know that I am God.”  The surrounding context...

WHEN FORGIVENESS REWRITES HISTORY

In the small coastal town of Brookings, Oregon, not far from where Jan and I live, is a unique and impactful story of forgiveness from both sides of World War II.  From a website called The Historian’s Den, I read the following: In September 1942, a lone Japanese...

THE BIG SHOT PASTOR

When our kids were in grade school, we pastored a wonderful church on the Oregon Coast for several years. Coastal towns can be great places to live, and our family still looks back on those years with great warmth and affection. Shortly after we arrived in Newport, we...