How to Recruit and Build a Team of Volunteers
Recruiting, training, deploying, and supporting volunteers can occasionally feel like a full-time job. But as leaders, we all understand that without these volunteers, church as we know it would come to a screeching halt. Curious to learn how my husband and I have...
What Joseph’s Life Can Teach Us about Ascent (Hint: It’s Totally Counter-Cultural)
"Our culture teaches us that succeeding, or ascending, is that time in our lives when the stars and planets align allowing everyone to finally see what we have always suspected was true. Why would it surprise me to study Joseph's life and discover something very...
GF/DF Blueberry Muffins
I love berry season. I don't care what kind, I can never get enough. This recipe is adapted from my NJ neighbor, Mary Morris. Her husband was a milkman in the days when they delivered milk in thick glass bottle. She was always finding ways to use up the extra milk...
Finding my Holy Grail as a Writer: Numbers or Readers?
I wonder how many of you have been tagged in a FB post by author Frank Viola? His post from July 3 explains how he garnered 350,000 page views on his site in one month. He writes, “Last month (June 2013), my Patheos blog broke all previous records for page views,...
The Sorry State of the Apology
Thanks to public figures such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Kristen Stewart, David Petraeus, and Anthony Weiner (who's back in the news and spotlight two years after his big apology), Americans have a grid for fallen humans admitting...
Eulogy for Exodus
In contrast to the dogmatic clarity expressed by its lovers and haters, our story casts Exodus International as neither deliverer nor devil. As participants, former leaders, and observers of Exodus, we have a complex response to the organization's demise, founded in...
It’s Takes a Village–And Then Some. How I Fail My Children and Why I Need Your Help
I am a limited woman. The older I get, the more I realize this profound truth. Those closest to me experience these limitations most frequently and most profoundly. That would be my husband and three sons. These limitations impact my youngest son the most profoundly...
The Carpenter’s Vision
We spent last weekend in the company of a master carpenter. Though I appreciated (and coveted) many of his creations, one particular object arrested my attention. It was a growth, similar to a cancer, which attached itself to the side of a healthy tree. To my...
Gifted for Leadership–Without Sanctification, Our Leadership Fails
Many Christian (and secular) organizations use the metric of growth in numbers rather than movement towards holiness. "God intends for us to yield to and partner with him so that the whole of who we are gradually reflects Jesus to the world. This is a profound and...
Framing Pain
Due to chronic pain, sleep often evades me. When the insomnia happens for more than five consecutive nights, I have to draw upon every ounce of my spirituality to get through the dark hours without cursing God or descending into despair. Suffering reveals the extent...