Who Is Hardest For You To Love Right Now?(A Pastor’s Reflections on Loving Our Enemies)When I stepped up to preach this past Sunday, I knew we were heading straight into the deep end.Before we opened ...  Read More

On Preaching About Lust, Adultery, and Divorce (When You’d Rather Preach on Almost Anything Else)I didn’t exactly volunteer for this passage.As we laid out our teaching plan for the Sermon on the Moun...  Read More

Jesus Heals Every Kind of OppressionA Pastor’s Reflection on Partnering with God’s Mission, Here and in AfricaOn Pentecost Sunday, as we gathered for worship, I was reminded again that we are part of ...  Read More

When Happiness and Holiness Collide: Reflections on the Beatitudes(A Pastor’s Heart After Sunday)Every Sunday, right before I step up to preach, I look around the room for a moment.I see people I know...  Read More

On Being Truly “Blessed”: Reflections From a Pastor’s HeartYesterday I preached the opening lines of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1–6). Today I’m still sitting with them, and honestly, they w...  Read More

He Is Risen… Now What?Reflections on Hearing – Really Hearing – the Sermon on the MountYesterday, as I stood in front of our church family and said, “He is risen,” I could feel the weight and wonder o...  Read More

Easter Sunday is always full.Full of music, full of color, full of familiar words and faces. Full of visitors who said “yes” to an invitation and are now wondering quietly if it was a good idea. Full ...  Read More

Palm Sunday is one of those days in the church calendar that we can easily reduce to crafts, palm branches, and maybe a childhood memory of a flannelgraph Jesus sliding off a felt donkey.For some of u...  Read More

If you’re anything like me, your days run on a kind of autopilot rhythm.You wake up at a certain time.  Maybe you make coffee a very particular way (I may or may not have an embarrassingly detailed br...  Read More

 (A Pastor’s Reflections on Matthew 4:18–22)Every week I climb into a semi truck and drive Washington’s highways. I’ve done it for over 30 years. It’s big, it’s loud, and there are moments when it’s g...  Read More

This past Sunday I had the privilege of walking our church family through Matthew 4:12–17, a short but absolutely pivotal passage in the Gospel of Matthew. It marks the beginning of Jesus’ public mini...  Read More

Spring in the Wilderness: Why Feeling “Off” Doesn’t Mean God Is GoneReflections from the Pastor’s ChairThis past weekend, my wife Ruth and I slipped away for a short retreat.Nothing dramatic, nothing ...  Read More