At the end of 2012 and into the beginning of 2013, after ten years of fruitful ministry, growing fellowship and meaningful outreach, our time at our previous church was coming to a rather unexpected end. I was the worship leader and the Associate Pastor for a small but growing congregation near what was then Qualcomm Stadium, and when it became clear that a change was coming, Rhonda and I found ourselves in a rather anxious state of Limbo. We knew it was time to move on, but we had no clear sense of where God was moving us to. As we began to pray and explore options, the opportunity to interview for the pastorate at a church north of LA, in Agoura Hills, presented itself. At first, this seemed like an ideal possibility, as Agoura Hills is just twenty minutes south of Ventura, where Rhonda and I grew up, and where much of our family still lives. However, after dinner and a question-and-answer time with the church's leadership and their spouses, it became clear to them – and later to us...

Revive v.: to return to life: become active or flourishing again. On February 8th at Asbury University, a Christian school in Wilmore, Kentucky, a revival-like phenomenon broke out. At the end of a typical chapel service that some students attend mainly to fulfill their required chapel quota for the semester, many students felt prompted to return for an extended time of worship and prayer. This unplanned and mostly unguided spiritual gathering has lasted more than 400 hours, attracted tens of thousands of visitors, and become the topic of national and global attention and debate. I use the term, revival-like, in an attempt to tread carefully among the opinions of both the critics and the champions of whatever it is that is happening at Asbury. Whatever is happening at Asbury, I’m confident from the reports I’ve read and second-hand accounts that have been passed on to me that the ongoing gathering is genuinely spontaneous and seems free of manipulation and exploitation. While much of...

Welcome to 2023! Have you made any resolutions? Have you broken any yet? While New Year’s resolutions may not be your thing, most of us seem to head into the new year with some intention to do and/or be better. This year I’m going to eat less and walk more; watch less TV and read more; spend less and save more. And from this list and the many more good intentions we could add, getting into shape seems regularly to come out on top. Like many of you, taking better care of my physical body is an ongoing goal and a continuing struggle. And while I want to be a good steward of the body God has blessed me with, I am both comforted and challenged by Paul’s words to his young protégé, Timothy: …train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come, 1 Timothy 4:7–8 (NIV). First, Paul affirms the value of caring for our bodies. I think we could extrapolate that Paul would affi...