Four years ago this week, seven adults decided to transition their small Bible study into a new congregation. We had been meeting in my living room for a few months to read Scripture, pray for one another, share a meal, and to share life, hoping and believing all along that this group would grow into a local congregation in and for the small town of Brenham, Texas (pop. 16,147). A new friend to me then, Dean Meade, pastor at Calvary Baptist church in Brenham, offered Calvary’s building for our use when we were ready to take that next step....

On Sunday we completed our series on Essential Christian Beliefs by discussing the realties of the afterlife: Heaven and Hell. The question "What happens when we die?" is arguably the most important question for any individual. In Psalm 24 David asks, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?" In the New Testament Jesus makes clear, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). The Bible presents two distinct options: (1) those who are in Christ experience eternal security, pleasure, and ...

“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved asleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate” ...

My day starts as late as possible, which for me is not typically later than 7:30 or 8:00AM am with 3 small children. They usually wake up between 7:00 and 7:15AM, which wakes Kendra and me up as well. We will turn on an educational show or two to get the day going and allow them to wake up while we make coffee and read our Bibles. I take my Sabbath on Fridays. My wife Kendra will typically make a hot breakfast of some kind, featuring some combination of eggs, toast, sausage or bacon, and sometimes pancakes. We spend a little longer at the ...

This is one of the most challenging and important spiritual practices to integrate well into the life of a Pastor. We are called to work so that others can seek rest and worship, but if we do not have time set aside for our own rest, worship, and sacred feasting we will careen off of the path quickly. There are several formidable foes to a pastor Sabbath-ing well: Swimming Upstream: We need to find a way to Sabbath when everyone else is working. They may be working in the yard on a Saturday or in their vocation on a Monday but the phone ...

Three kids in, 41 years later, and I can’t really sleep past 7 or 7:30, even on my day of rest. I’m okay with that; no, I’m thankful for that -- the mornings are when God’s gift still have a new car smell to them. I like the quiet that fills my home in the early hours. During the week the kids have to get up so early for school; on Saturday morning (when there is not soccer games to be at), I can capture an hour or two before I hear feet coming down the stairs. I can pray for those still sleeping. I can have the coffee ready for my ...

How To Be Happy* Happy are the rich, for theirs is the kingdom of this earth. Happy are the conquerors, for they will need no comfort. Happy are the opportunistic, for they will take what they want. Happy are those with self-esteem, for they are satisfied with themselves. Happy are those who seek fairness, for they will get what they deserve. Happy are those who experience sexual pleasure, for they will see so many things. Happy are the successful, for they will be called leaders of men. Happy are the honored, accepted, and understood, for ...

I keep the Sabbath like a Jew: from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Recently I rearranged my schedule to work a half-day on Fridays, so I’m usually home by 1PM or so. From then until 6PM I’m with the kids playing, rough-housing, reading, running errands, exploring, etc. Last Friday I took my two oldest (Jonas, 6; Betty, 4) to tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream creamery, a veritable right of passage for local Brenhamites. We’ve been many times. We eat dinner at 6PM and transition to our Sabbath rhythm. Every other Friday we have ...

A review of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy By Eric Mextas 2010; 591 pages RECOMMENDED (Buy this. Trust Me.) I first encountered Dietrich Bonhoeffer (b. 1906; d. 1945) through his seminal work, The Cost of Discipleship (1948 in English). I soon read Life Together (1954 in English) and moved on to other books in his catalogue. Since reading these books in my teens and early twenties, I have re-read them many times. Bonhoeffer has shaped my thinking and ministry in incalculable ways. Mextaxas' book is intimidating with almost ...

A review of The Foolishness of Preaching: Proclaiming the Gospel against the Wisdom of the World By Robert Farrar Capon 1996; 164 pages RECOMMENDED (with qualification) As the title might suggest, this is not a book for everyone. It is, more specifically, a book for preachers, and I would add, writers too. Though even then, the preacher or writer in question should have thick skin and a strong handle on his or her doctrine. I disagree with Capon about much: his politics, his ethics, often his theology, and sometimes even his preaching. Yet ...

My dear friend Seth Woods is a contributor to a music project designed to fund ministry in Kenya through KIANGA PROJECT. This ministry, founded by Ben Dudley, produces a Christmas album each year and distributes the funds raised to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. These albums are FREE, but of course you are welcomed to donate to help fund the ministry and future projects. Please visit KIANGA PROJECT to learn more. Go to CHRISTMAS FOR KENYA to download great music. Enjoy.

This week singer/songwriter Derek Webb released his first instrumental worship album, Feedback. Derek has been a longtime favorite or mine. As an enamored 16 year old, I even requested that he sign my guitar at an early Caedmon's Call show. His 2009 release, Stockholm Syndrome, is aruguably his best work to date, and I look forward to enjoying his new Feedback. Go to DEREK WEBB . com for more details and to buy.

In January 1936, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to a friend, I plunged into work in a very unchristian way. An ... ambition that many noticed in me made my life difficult.... Then something happened, something that has changed and transformed my life to the present day. For the first time I discovered the Bible ... I had often preached. I had seen a great deal of the Church, and talked and preached about it--but I had not yet become a Christian.... I know that at that time I turned the doctrine of Jesus Christ into something of personal advantage ...

Earlier this week the New York Times reported on a recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum on "the Bible, Christianity and other world religions, famous religious figures and the constitutional principles governing religion in public life. "On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 and 20.3 correct answers, respectively....

I've been reading Eric Metaxas' new biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Love it! The Wall Street Journal said it well: "In Hitler's Germany, a Lutheran pastor chooses resistance and pays with his life. . . Eric Metaxas tells Bonhoeffer's story with passion and theological sophistication, often challenging revisionist accounts that make Bonhoeffer out to be a 'humanist' or ethicist for whom religious doctrine was easily disposable. . . Metaxas reminds us that there are forms of religion -- respectable, domesticated, timid -- that may end up ...