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"How do I know what God wants me to do?"

I’ve pastored two churches. The first was a start-up, and we began in my living room with about a half dozen people. On opening Sunday, we had twelve. I enjoyed watching that ministry grow for the next nineteen years.But when I arrived here nine and a half years ago, I was struck by the sense of history in this church. The church was not in a very good place at the time. It had been in decline for years and our attendance was only a fraction of what it had been in its heyday.

My new year’s resolution this year is to never write 2016 on a form and then have to correct it. I was able to keep all of my new year’s resolutions last year. I kept them in the top drawer of my desk…so I can make the same ones again this year.I don’t really make new year’s resolutions. I do set annual goals. And I do believe the new year is a beneficial time to evaluate our lives, examine what direction we are heading in, and to make course corrections. But whether or not y

The new year is the time many of us take inventory of our lives and evaluate those things that we want to change, or at least, make improvements to. That’s a good thing. I think all of us should regularly examine ourselves and ask The Lord what he wants us to focus on in the near future. As a staff, we’ve been using the following questions within our accountability groups to help us start the new year with Spiritual Goals. I’d like to encourage you to share this list with at

In The Day Christ Was Born, best selling author and journalist, Jim Bishop wrote a reliable and true-to-life analysis of Jesus’ birth. I loved the realism throughout the book, but I’d like to quote for you what he says about young Mary, the soon-to-be mother."She no longer noticed the chafe of the goatskin against her leg, nor the sway of the food bag on the other side of the animal. Her veiled head hung and she saw millions of pebbles on the road moving by her brown eyes in

Several years ago we held a special Veteran’s Day service in our church to honor veterans. Because it was an election year, we also invited politicians to join us, thinking they would, being as they were up for election and wanted to go anywhere with a crowd of potential voters. We were right. We had a big crowd and quite a few candidates from both major parties. It was a nonpolitical service (as everything is here at The Bridge) and we saw it as an opportunity to expand our

Here it is….Christmas season! Are you ready? Decorations up? Gift list completed? Shopping started? Plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day settled?

I’m sure you’ve seen the footage. The 150 lb. guy lugging a 90 lb. pot of gold he found unguarded in back of an armored delivery truck. Obviously, the armored car company and the police have lost the whereabouts of the thief and the gold, or they would not have released the video. This happened back in September! With all the street surveillance in NYC, you’d think they could have followed him. But he’s disappeared with his loot. All the news articles and comments I’ve read h

I was struck at the bank the other day when I noticed the vault was left open and unattended, yet, I was filling out a deposit slip with a pen that was chained to the counter.Does that seem ironic to you?I’m guilty of those little hypocritical gestures….such as ordering a burger, fries, and then a DIET Coke. A friend of mine used to leave his new $30,000 car in his driveway, because his $2,000 camper was taking up the garage space. I could go on and on with things that we do

In our Outsiders series through the Book of Daniel, we’ve learned that this world is not really ours, and that our home is in heaven.

The problems with politics in a democracy is that by it’s very nature we have to choose between imperfect people. Sometimes the choice is more stark than others, and sometimes it’s our background and upbringing that causes us to focus on the strengths or weaknesses of either candidate, causing us to view stark differences where others may not. For the citizens of the kingdoms of this world, it’s understandable that they pick sides and swear allegiance to an imperfect candidat

Two fathers in the same town with similar families and life circumstances faced a similar trial. Both received word from a mutual friend that their middle school boys were involved in some mild illegal activity. How the two fathers responded made a lasting difference.The first father saw the crisis as an opportunity to make changes in his own schedule to give his son more time, and to become more involved in his life, talking regularly about his values and the things in life