It’s been a tough few days hasn’t it? Lots of feelings on the latest news coming out of the state to the south of us (Minnesota). We’ve all likely seen at least a few clips and although I know there are absolutely awful, atrocious injustices and heartbreaking events taking place all around the world—Iran, Ukraine, Gaza, etc.—all of this ICE vs. civilian stuff has been hitting in a different way. At least for me. Yesterday I watched a clip of…
Adapted from the Weekly Grassroots Newsletter January 23-28 Here’s a not so fun fact: last year the World Health Organization designated loneliness as a “global public health concern.” Research has shown that loneliness is as bad for people’s health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Loneliness is literally killing us. I tuned into a podcast the other day and one of the guests, a pastor, had observed that a lot of folks have been duped into thinking that coming to a church service with countless…
This past Sunday I shared the last 4 of the 5 pillars of Jesus Collective. The 4th pillar, “The Holy Spirit empowers us to partner with God’s work of reconciling all things” implies that in the task of restoring, healing and redeeming our broken world that we are called to, we are not able to do so on our own and, thankfully, are invited into partnership with the “Helper” (Holy Spirit) to work together in this. This is a beautiful concept that…
I’ve been talking a lot about boundedness lately on Sundays because, frankly, I’m tired of the division that’s ensued over the past few years within the Church and, even, within our church. My hope is for us to arrive at a way that can see past our positions, wherever they may lie, and be joined in our conviction that Jesus matters over everything. It’s no small task, I’m aware, and certainly even naive to think it can be done at all,…
I have a buddy. He’s an old ministry vet with years on the battlefield, having seen the good, the bad and the ugly that being knee deep in church life brings. As a result, he’s learned some key lessons from his time in ministry that has ended up serving him pretty well in life, regardless of the context. One such lesson he shared with me the other night was this idea that people have a pretty limited capacity to take in information…