Welcome to my blog. I spend half my life in coffee shops having honest conversations about how following Jesus works in real life. So, let’s learn together, grab a cup and – join the conversation.
How this site works:
I’ll post every Monday and invite you to weigh in.
Quick Bio
I’m a businessman, elder in one of the more conservative mega churches in Grand Rapids, Michigan and for over 25 years a full time spiritual mentor of men. I love introducing people to Jesus and truth from God’s perspective. I’m also an NPR listener and student of our culture because I want to understand how the world and a younger generation think, so I’m prepared to engage in conversations which are true to the Bible, intellectually honest and gracious.
Following Jesus is the only hope I have of living this life with purpose, energy and expectation. I hope to end my days on earth still meeting young men at Starbucks who have no interest in God, being the patriarch of my family, cheering them on to godliness, making sad people smile and the lonely – laugh, giving the poor hope, pointing wayward men back to their families, teaching the whole counsel of God and keeping myself unstained – God’s reputation and mine intact.
I spend half my life in coffee shops having honest conversations about how following Jesus works in real life. So, let’s learn together, grab a cup and join the conversation.
This edition from Simon and Schuster has been totally revised with expanded teachings and a study guide. Available in stores and online now!
A year ago, I sat with Dr. Preston Sprinkle my partner in The Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender, (www.centerforfaith.com) discussing the sexual beliefs of Christian kids. We were preparing for a meeting with Sean McDowell, a theologian at Biola University and David Kinnaman, president of Barna Research, both true experts in this field. Francis Chan was all ready, all in to do some of the teaching.
Both Preston and I had a dream of producing the best educational videos we could on sex, marriage and gender. The Center’s primary emphasis is on same-sex attraction and trans people from a conservative biblical position. But we wanted to expand into helping high school and college age students think more biblically about Christian sexuality, marriage and gender, gay or straight. So, we called together a dozen of the most experienced Christian leaders in the country to help us think through some better ways to address this issue other than, “just say no!” What follows is my contribution to the subject.
That question came up a number of years ago as I was driving with a few of our grandchildren. We were talking about the recent birth of a new cousin. I had reminded them that all humans were created in the image of God. My answer surprised them, as it does many Christians.
“No, we don’t look like God,” I said. “That’s not what the Bible means when it says that we were created in the image of God.”
So, what follows is the framework for a discussion you may want to have with your children or grandchildren about the amazing distinction between humans and animals, often blurred in movies and fiction. (more…)
Our grandson Max has been as frustrated as most of us about the lack of civility in American politics, so he decided to do something about it.
He and his team have designed a great, new, and free website called “Civil” They take one issue of national importance weekly, and present both the conservative and liberal positions, with a few talking points for each, without pushing either position. They do a great job of helping subscribers simply understand why the other side believes what they do. “Who cares?” You might be asking.
All of us have friends, church members, or relatives who disagree with us and it’s putting pressure on our relationships. Why not at least try to understand why people we’ve been friends with for years, hold the views they do, so we can dialogue “civilly”?
Decades ago, I attended The World Conference on the Holy Spirit, held in the Superdome in New Orleans. I’d only been a serious follower of Jesus for a half dozen years, and knew very little about the spiritual gifts of tongues, prophesy or divine healing. What I did know came from the Bible, but growing up in the Reformed tradition, we weren’t exactly on the cutting edge of “sign gifts.”
