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2017 might have been a great year for some, but for others, it was a year to forget. Some of you went through a painful divorce this last year. Some of you lost your job. Others had relationship failures, family drama, personal defeats and health challenges. For some, this was a year that you want to put behind you. But how? The Apostle Paul gives us a hint in his famous words used by many as a motivational speech, “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully

Christmas is supposed to be a wonderful time of the year. So how come you are so stressed?You can be at peace this Christmas and you can find that peace now, so that you actually enjoy Christmas this year. It’s not complicated. I’ve got three simple steps for you. Take these steps seriously, and follow them, and they will give you the strength to not just survive the season, but to thrive in it. List your stressors. Put them down on paper. Don’t just list them in your mind. Y

Did you see on the news the story of the college graduate in Indiana who took to the streets in search of a job? With a jug of water and a folder full of resumes, he stood at busy intersections wearing a sandwich sign that read, “College Grad Looking For A Job.” The headline on the story was, “College Grad Wears Resume.”That shouldn’t be a headline. In truth, we all wear our resumes. No big news in that. If you are applying for a job, your paper resume means only so much. If

Every year around this time I get questions from parents asking, “What did you tell your kids about Santa?” Some are very adamant: “Santa Claus is a replacement of Jesus in this secularized society and just another way of spreading the materialism of this age.” Others see the fable as harmless, delightful fantasy: “I believed in Santa when I was a kid and it didn’t hurt me! It’s just a fun way to give the kids a magical spark during Christmas.”Have you ever thought that Santa

How was your Thanksgiving? The trouble is, even before we could really contemplate our gratitude, this world is churning out its marketing ploy for Christmas, instigating dissatisfaction and greed.

There are days, and sometimes weeks, when disappointing circumstances can seem overwhelming. You feel like you are barely keeping your emotional head above the water and then you see a giant wave approaching. For some reason, hard times come in blasts, not trickles. A broken relationship, trouble at work, health issues, money problems…they seem to come at us all at once. You don’t know what is harder: disappointment, fear, shame, or rejection.And sometimes it’s just one reall

Having pastored for 30+ years, I’m not surprised by the viral #metoo from weeks ago. I know the rape culture is real. Sexual harassment is a nearly everyday occurrence for some and sexual assault is far too common. You would probably be shocked to know the numbers of people sitting in our church, week after week, who have been molested as children, assaulted as adolescents, or raped as adults. I, and our counselors at The Bridge, deal with it weekly. I didn’t title this post

Last Tuesday, social media was on fire with posts, articles, and quotes regarding the 500 year anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. There was already so much written and so many posts that I didn’t enter the fray. But all of us have a debt of gratitude to the brave reformers who changed the world in their time.But Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five theses on Wittenberg’s Castle Church on October 31, 1517, wasn’t really the beginning. The seeds of the Reformatio

“I have doubts. Does that mean I don’t have faith?” I’ve been asked that question dozens of times. There’s a great story about this in the Gospel of Mark. A man asks Jesus to help him with his son. He explains that he had already sought help from Jesus’ disciples but that they were not able to do anything for him. The man says to Jesus, “If you can, please help him!” Notice the, “If” in his request for help, “If you can…” Jesus noticed it too. So he countered, “‘If you can!’”

You get some things done. But there are a lot of things you’ve been wanting to do for a long time, that you’ve never done. How come? I’ve always wanted to be a pilot. Not an airline pilot, but a private pilot. Three of my four uncles on my mom’s side were pilots and as a kid, I flew with them. So the dream began early. At 19, one uncle offered to help me get started and I almost did. I looked into it over the years, but never went for it. When I turned 35, I started to get se

Many of us pastors struggle with pastor appreciation month. We are extremely grateful for the words and kind gestures we receive from people we love dearly. But we are already in the spotlight so much, being on stage on the weekends, that most of us would rather deflect the attention. After all, it’s really the people working behind the scenes, the people who are rarely thanked and rarely recognized, who we should have a special month for.But this week, I received the best pa

A couple of months ago, we talked about the message of the church, and how to concisely share the Gospel so that people can understand and respond. I gave four points to help guide conversations: God’s Love (John 3:16) Your Sin (Romans 3:23) God’s Son (Romans 5:8) Your Decision (Romans 10:9-13) Then last weekend, Junior brought a message from Acts 22 on sharing your God-story. From Paul’s own practice of sharing his, we learned the three elements of a Christian testimony: You

Good Christians disagree about controversial things. We certainly have seen that in recent years regarding a lot of topics. I take it more seriously when the Bible speaks clearly into the matter, but there are a lot of issues that Christians debate and argue over, where the Scripture gives principles to guide, but people on both sides are sincerely attempting to use God’s Word to form their thinking. Is that ok? Of course it is! And it’s healthy. As long as we continue to dia

A couple of years ago, my daughter Erica and I were in Guatamala and while there, visited an interesting church in the city of Antigua. We enjoyed the service. It was alive and reaching a lot of people. It reminded me of The Bridge in many ways, except I couldn’t understand most of what was being said. ?The church held its services in a hotel that had been a Catholic Church complex way back in the 16th century. The ruins were turned into a museum for the general public, so we

We are now two years into this project. It started with our merge with Prospect Heights Christian Church and the decision to plant a new Bridge campus where Prospect Christian was located. Then came plans to replace the old and very small building with a new facility that would maximize that property. Then came Beyond, our capital campaign designed to jump start the project with necessary equity. And many of you have sacrificially given your hard-earned money into Beyond to s

We’re still in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and will be for a while. The devastation from over 40 inches of rain and the huge surge of Gulf water into the area has inundated hundreds of thousands of homes and displaced more than 30,000 people. While more than 17,000 have been rescued, we still do not know what the death toll will be.And now Hurricane Irma.Can’t God stop a hurricane?As a Christian, I believe that God is sovereign. That means that he is in control. He is

I love the church. I love the big "C" Church, and the little "c" church. I love the founder of the Church, the mission of the Church, and the people of the Church.But I have no expectation of knowing everyone in any church.The church that made the greatest difference in my life when I was seventeen…I knew very few people in that church at the time. And yet God used it to change my life.But I hear people often complain about that very thing…not knowing enough people at their c

Our church’s mission is to connect people with God, connect people with people, and connect people with service. Of that triad, the second ties the first and last together. God did not just create us as individuals, he created us as relational beings to enjoy community. When Adam was made, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”When it comes to our faith journey, involving other people is a big deal. It was for every Bible character and every strong Christian I’ve eve

The Bridge is one of the most peaceful churches you will ever encounter. But being full of people and led by frail humans, we do face minor conflict from time to time. Probably the most common surrounds the purpose of our church and what kind of church we are supposed to be. When you think of it, once that is settled, most other decisions are simplified and we are able to see our way through the things we do and don’t do, and how we approach every ministry.And that is somethi

I read a blog post a couple of weeks ago titled, Church Growth Strategy: Be Weird. The title did what it intended to do, it got my attention.Actually, it was a review of a book that I’ve since ordered, Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World. In it, Larry Hurtado, of the University of Edinburgh, contends that early Christianity grew dramatically because, while the Christian message was universal, its messengers were unique. There was no drive