the    sides

This is part of the Beyond The Starting 5 project. A writing safari where I explore the idea of what people-development looks like in the local church. I have no idea what I’m doing, mileage may vary. The rain is gone. (You can thank me later for getting that song stuck in your head. And [...]

[Read more →]

I was at Oasis today in Emporia. Oasis is a one-day refreshment for area youth pastors and Danny Payne has hosted it the last two years. He asked me to come lead a round table discussion. Instead of having an outline of points to make, I had questions. Here was the list I brought… Who [...]

[Read more →]

Wayne asked for some examples of when I misused authenticity. It’s not a totally fair question since he already knows/experienced/was an accomplice to many of those times. But Wayne has never been fair. Entertaining, funny, sarcastic, and loyal but never fair. Love ya’, bro. I thought about rolling out a few stories illustrating my wonderful [...]

[Read more →]

I’m in dialogue with a peer about the importance of life groups/small groups that have real, authentic, raw community with each other. It’s more than just Bible study, it’s doing life together. It’s uncomfortable, edgy, messy life. That we agree on. To what end is where we found ourselves disagreeing. His slant is so that [...]

[Read more →]

I wonder what would happen in a church if for 365 days her key leaders did nothing but did life with 3 or 4 others?  They would worship together, they would get together once a week to eat and ask each other hard, vulnerable, raw questions, and they had 1 ministry they poured into?  Ministry [...]

[Read more →]