We were suspicious. His conversion story was bizarre at worst, unconventional at best. Tom McCarthy was a young medical doctor and faculty member at UCLA Medical Center. He showed up in church, in pursuit of one of our young women. He was also recently divorced. We were a small church and she had lots of…

A friend of mine, named Kaz Sekine, planted a successful church in the heart of Tokyo where real estate costs are among the highest on earth. With nowhere available to rent they had to innovate. Kaz and his friends planted the church in a park, during a typhoon. Flexibility comes from understanding that form follows…

Some time ago, I spoke with a hurting former church planter. The church he led died a couple of years ago. He was feeling bad about the death of the church he loved. Where he saw failure, I saw a church with a shortened lifespan. The church was a success while it lasted. Planting churches…

The Church Planter and Fyre Festival Expectations   Every church planter imagines the church of his dreams on the other side of the launch.   Then reality hits like the Fyre Festival.   Have you heard about it?   It was supposed to be the party of all parties.   It was started by rapper…

I’m not a mystic, although I’ve been called one. I don’t claim to understand anything about God and how he works. I mean, I study the Bible, and draw as many blanks as Job, the Psalmist, or John on the isle of Patmos. That said, I’ve got a theory. You know what a theory is,…

I sat through an interesting board meeting early this week. Church management underwent some healthy change. As we looked at our financial statement, someone voiced concern over some costly, “out-of-the-box,” expenses associated with an annual missions project. Specifically, moving resources through a certain country we “tip” officials at various checkpoints. The tips involve a lot…