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The American Church: 240 Years Later...

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Yesterday, my wife and I stood together with hundreds of other believers and prayed. We lifted up the name of Jesus in worship. We excitedly shared the details of a man we hope to call as pastor whom we trust will carry on the tradition of preaching the Word of God boldly and without compromise. Our church sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” our national anthem and the Newsboys’ song “We Believe,” a creedal declaration of doctrine and hope. We stood, hands over heart, and pledged our allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. This was the scene all across our great country in tens of thousands of churches and its gravity should not be lost on us as we celebrate 240 years as a nation today. To Christians around the globe experiencing daily persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ, to think that we would have such religious liberty for nearly two and a half centuries is nothing short of miraculous. And I am truly grateful for the blood that has been poured out over and
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Se Trata De Jesus! (It's all about JESUS!)

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"No se trata de nosotros... Se trata de Jesus"           To every congregation, group or gathering...in every church...all over the world, I believe that this phrase is the key to life for every follower of Jesus! We truly begin living when our lives cease to be about our own needs, desires, and principles and begin to flow instead out of a fervent desire to please and glorify God in pursuit of His Son, Jesus Christ. But saying this phrase and putting it into practice are two very different things...even for pastors...           When we arrived in El Salvador, I was already burnt out but nevertheless excited to be joining our team on the ground and introducing two of my closest Bible study buddies to what has become for me a place very dear to my own heart. For the third time in two years, we landed in San Salvador and were greeted by Pastor Chuck and Carol preparing to board the plane where I had just spent the last several hours uncomfortably avoiding the pa
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"Grace in the Gritty: Responding to the Duggar Debacle"

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          This is our "Love Board." I wish it were my idea but honestly, I saw it at some friends' apartment and couldn't help but make one for our fridge.           It started with an occasional note from me; a silly or sweet response from my bride. Then our 3-year old daughter got involved and wanted to express her adoration of mommy. When I was sick with the flu, our kids wrote some endearing messages to boost my spirits (before I was forcibly removed to the quarantine zone, of course). But one morning, I woke up and sat down at the kitchen table only to be captivated by this message in the picture that had been left by our "adopted" son.           Honestly, he's never known anyone as his father and his own personal mistakes began to lead him down a terrible road that created a rift in his life and family. Today, that young man is making real strides to follow Jesus, work hard, and right old wrongs. We are incredibly proud of him and we are thril
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From "I DO" to "I'M DOING"

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"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband." Ephesians 5:31-33 The single most important relationship that I have is with my King, my Master, my Savior - His name is Jesus Christ. Everything else rises and falls with the intimacy I share with the Lord. But immediately following that relationship is my marriage to Brittany. The three of us together create a cord that is not easily broken when our hearts are in sync but when sin and miscommunication enter the picture, it can be devastating. Just take a look around you at the shattered remains left behind by divorce and you can tell that marriage is simultaneously beautiful, hilarious, frustrating, messy, joyous and perhaps the most difficult blessing we will ever have. And it&
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Thursday Mission Report: The Final Countdown in El Salvador

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“Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;  therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Matthew 9:37-38 On each of our trips into El Salvador, we are blessed to see so much of this beautiful country. We fly into the airport and are quickly escorted into a bustling city with many of the comforts of America (although certainly not all of them, of course). Each day we travel from mountaintop villages, to schools in the midst of gangland territories and even police headquarters. In November, we took flatbed pickup trucks into the jungles via a dry riverbed to conduct clinics for a town that rarely sees outsiders and is effectively cut off from the rest of the world during the rainy season. And this year, we finally got the chance to see the coast of our Central American home.  Again, we left at just six o’clock in the morning, drove two hours to the southern coastline
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