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…

I’ve been reading a fascinating book called The Search for God in Guinness–A Biography of the Beer That Changed The World. What caught my attention was learning that the founders were believers who, for generations, made a real difference in their culture. They pulled people out of poverty, made sure communities were well-nourished, and tackled…

C.S. Lewis once described God as a “tragic redeemer.” By this he meant that God takes even the worst tragedies of human life and turns them toward redemption. He works good out of what was meant for harm. The cross itself is the ultimate example: humanity’s rejection of Jesus became the very means of salvation…

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44, NIV). Jesus’ words confront our natural instincts when faced with hostility, persecution, and violence. The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk forces us to wrestle with this teaching in personal and practical ways. What compounds this tragedy is how some celebrated Kirk’s death-reactions…

I don’t know about you, but I struggle sometimes with praying to Jesus. He’s my friend but also commands awe and deserves deep reverence. I think we’ve humanized Jesus so much that my prayer life is becoming difficult. Jesus himself said we should ask things of the Father in his name, and that’s stuck with…

“If you ain’t reading, you ain’t leading.” Those were the wise words of Roy Hicks Jr., a friend I considered an older brother. Just two years older than me, Roy led a youth group before I did, planted a church before I did, and pioneered church multiplication before I did. He always forged the path…

Back during the pandemic we heard a lot of complaining about “Zoom fatigue.” People were forced to work from home and meet online and they didn’t like it-as opposed to very different feelings today. After we got back into church buildings most of us reverted to old patterns often overlooking the power we gained through…

A friend recently asked me to state, in one word, what I thought could kill a movement. As I reflected on that, my mind went to Acts chapter 15, where the Jerusalem Council met and struck down the whole issue of circumcision. This isn’t about circumcision, but it is about rules. That was my one…

A friend recently gave me reason to pause. He was talking about a tendency many of us have as leaders-to over-strategize. Sometimes, in our passion for progress, we fail to wait for our people to catch up. Instead of walking in the light we already have, we chase after new light, new revelations, new ideas.…