Revitalize Your Church

I have some bad news and good news. The bad news is that you are going to have big troubles.  It's pretty much a guarantee that problems are headed your way.  Sometime, somehow, somewhere, you are going to experience difficulty. Problems are a part of the human experience.  We shouldn't be so surprised when they show up. The good news is that you don't have to let your troubles get the best of you.  If you process them right, you will grow and become a better as a result. A few years ago, a buddy of mine called and told me his wife left him.  This terrible ordeal was the most painful and discouraging period of his life.   Someone else made an unfortunate choice that caused his life to crash. I was impressed with how he handled this heartwrenching situation.  Instead of caving into dispair and giving up on life, he decided to become a railroad engineer. Even from early childhood, he always wanted to drive a train.  But, li...

An old farmer placed a weather vane on the roof of his barn with the words “God is Love” painted on it. His neighbor commented, “Doesn’t your weather vane indicate that God’s love is fickle? That it blows one way and then another?” To this, the old farmer replied, “No, it means that ‘God is Love’ no matter which way the wind blows!” Nahum 1:3 says “The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” Well, we certainly had some divine foot dust last week in Hayward! We lost most of the majestic old pines in front of our church. The winds also caused some damage at my home, though it is rather insignificant, compared with what a few of our neighbors have experienced. Our hearts and prayers go out to them. The clean-up effort is in full swing. Last Thursday, after a long day of clearing debris, I thought, “How long will it take until we get back to normal?” Then I realized we won’t. Normal is not something you can go BACK to – you have to move forward to a new ...