Have you ever had a family member or close friend come to you repeatedly needing just one more, “temporary loan”? It seems that almost every family has a brother, daughter, cousin or someone who always seems to be "a little short." I’m not talking about a generally responsible person who’s fallen on some hard times due to a job loss, divorce, long term illness or underwater mortgage. That can happen to anyone. I’m talking about a generally irresponsible, lazy or simply foolis

The Importance Of The First Few Exploratory Meetings Set some dates for the first few meetings and make it clear that at this stage no one is agreeing to be an accountability partner yet, but you want to meet for a few weeks to get to know each other better and discuss everyone's expectations. Unless everyone knows each other well, I'd suggest everyone take 15-30 minutes to give the group a brief summary about themselves including the type of family they grew up in, education

Last week my blog encouraged you to write a Personal Mission Statement. Have you ever attended a weekend seminar that was really helpful, took tons of notes but come Monday morning life got crazy and almost all the good intentions you had are forgotten in the rush of life? Why is that? Because you're not actually accountable to anyone so the "tyranny of the urgent" often robs us of our good intentions. To whom you are accountable spiritually? Have you ever really thought abou

Decades ago I felt like my life was out of control. I was busy in ministry, we were raising six children, trying to keep our marriage fresh and I felt like I was not doing any of them well. Life was a blur. So, I signed up for a time management course. I thought that was how I would find more balance: just be more efficient. The first words out of the seminar presenter’s mouth were two questions and then a quote. “How many of you have a written Personal Mission Statement?” T

Last week I met with an older widow and her friend who asked to meet for guidance on inheritance questions. She has three children who have not treated her, or each other with love and respect. The kids in their 50’s claim to be Christians but after hearing their mother I had doubts. “Clare, I don’t trust my children to be fair with each other when I die with my personal possessions. Is there anything I can do now to lessen the potential conflict?” Yes, there is. I’ve sat wit

A man I’d never met called a few months ago and asked for an appointment about an urgent matter. So we met. “My son is dating a Catholic girl and my wife and I are sick about it! What should we do?” I’ve been asked this question dozens of times over the years, so I’ve learned to ask this question; “What kind of Catholic is she (or he)?” Invariably the reaction is always the same. “What do you mean by that? She’s Catholic. How many kinds of Catholics are there?” “There are as

I grew up in a wonderful church that was part of the theologically strong denomination. So what about to discribe is more about the Christian culture I grew up in than my church, or denomination. Growing up in the 50’s amd 60’s I heard the phrase used often, “I have a private faith.” Or “She, or he, or they have a private faith.” I took that to mean that just because they never, or rarely talked about their relationship with Jesus to family and friends and almost never to str

In last week’s blog, I described the sin Jesus said could not be pardoned or forgiven in this life or the next. The unpardonable sin is attributing to Satan, a work of the Holy Spirit like the miracle Jesus did and the Pharasies said Jesus was empowered by the Devil. But if what it means to be saved   is that all past and future sins are forgiven by God, because of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, is it even possible for Christians to commit an unpardonable sin? Maybe T

I grew up believing the “unforgivable sin” was denying Christ. I thought there were two kinds of people who could do that – non-Christians who rejected the gospel and people who once said they were Christians, but now deny being one. I was wrong (partly). Matthew 12:22-32 records this teaching of Jesus; Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see.   All the people were astonished and said, “Could