We spent four years pursuing an abandoned bowling alley in Hermosa Beach. Vandalized, massive, sitting on a hill overlooking the ocean-we knew God wanted us to have it. We told people God reserved this place for our church. We prayed over it. We laid hands on the walls. We met with the owners. Nineteen times,…

Churches in America grew rapidly between 1990 and 2006. We built bigger buildings, launched better programs, hired more staff. From the platform, it looked like success. Then someone did the math. The number of people born in the United States during those 16 years equaled the size of the American church in 1990. Yet the…

Guy Kapeliela terrified people. Large, violent, and drug-addicted, he was the fear of Kailua. His troubled adolescence cost him a football scholarship. Anger and intimidation were his tools for engaging others. Then Jesus grabbed him. Guy became soft, shy, humble-but no leader. He struggled with dyslexia and spoke pidgin English, which embarrassed him. He worked…

We had $2,100 in savings when we moved to plant Hope Chapel. Our weekly salary that first month? Fifteen dollars. For context, our rent was $225. Do the math-it doesn’t work. Ruby sold Avon cosmetics door-to-door. I delivered gospel literature on foot because we couldn’t afford postage. Someone gave us money to give away 20,000…

Jeff MacKay showed up at our Hermosa Beach church looking like the last guy you’d tap for leadership. Blond surfer hair falling in his face, wire-rimmed glasses sliding down his nose, mild dyslexia. We hired him to run our print shop. We fired him for sloppy work. Two weeks later, he asked if he could…

My dentist had me pinned in the chair, mouth propped open, when he delivered the line that would name a book I eventually wrote, “You’ll never let go of the ring, Frodo. They never do.” Ken was right to be skeptical. I was leaving a church of 2,000 people-during a time when the Associated Press…