Blog
This morning while reading the word, an image appeared in my spirit of a hand reaching over a fence and dropping a note. The fence separated the present from the future. The note was a promise from God assigned to a time and place of future fulfillment. The fence...
When your daughter honors her parents on their 50th anniversary. It messes with one's emotions. https://www.facebook.com/1442665059/videos/2707469992737958/
It would be a surprise to denominational leaders what some of their pastors believe and, in some cases, no longer believe. That same surprise would occur for local pastors regarding some of their staff members or for their congregants who assumed their friends...
As a young pastor I listened a lot. I listened to the many voices of leaders who went before me. There were times in those early years when I would ask a simple question and receive a profound answer. In my first year of pastoring I asked Jerry Cook...
A forthright friend recently commented, “How strange that you are an artist, and yet you are so rigid with your time. So structured. Where’s the passion?” To which I wish I had replied: “Talent and passion don’t just transform themselves into books and paintings. That...
When Jan and I lived in Berlin, Germany we loved walking in the city parks. The park system in Berlin was unlike any I had ever seen. These parks were not the traditional square piece of land with grass and a few trees – the parks in Berlin ran through...
We have a tendency to think a person who has become a legend is stronger and more capable than the offspring of the legend themselves. If some of our legends were alive today they would challenge that way of thinking. In 1967, I was a junior in high school...
It is always a joyful day when you sit down with your editor (my daughter, Anna Elkins) and obtain an ISBN number and register the title for a new book - The Leadership Rock: A Journey of a Life in Leadership. Looks like a May 1 release date.
My pastoral transition will take place in my 65th year. I have been learning a lot about myself in this new season. As Jan and I prepare to hand the leadership of our church over to Ryan and Kate Rhoden, Ryan and I have been having wonderful conversations...
Several years ago, I realized that if I was going to finish well I would need to invest in those things that allowed me to go deeper in my intimacy with God. Over the years of ministry I have seen the encroachment of demands and needs taking over my calendar and...
My weekends are important times for me. This is the time each week the church gathers and when I teach. I take it seriously. I always want to be fresh for Sunday morning so I can give my best to God and his people. As the weekend rolls around I try...
We have just come through a moment in time where the Church has been repositioned into a new place. Few of us really understand this new position. Something has changed. This new place is not yet fully defined, but will become more evident with each passing day as we...
When Jesus gave us the Great Commission he said, “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” The Great Commission has become the marching orders for the Church over the last 2,000 years. At the end of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus told his disciples to “Go” in another...
In 2013 God will begin moving in powerful ways. This move of God will not be age, gender or race-specific. It will include many elements of previous revivals and renewals. Be careful of criticizing any one element you do not fully understand or agree with. What God is...