Category Archives: Christianity & Church
Microfinancing at Freedom for Youth, pt. 1
Since September I’ve been in a book study group with a few other guys from Two Rivers. We started off with a pretty hard-hitting read, The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision.
The book had a lot of convicting things to say about how Western Christians practice their faith in [...]
Evangelism at the Plaza
I’ve noticed that the studios lately have been experimenting with new ways to promote their movies. In both Chicago and Minneapolis, street teams have approached me to ask if they could take a picture of me holding a promotional item of some sort. I’ve worked out that they’re paid for each one of these photos, [...]
Rerun: Plastic Jesus
Amanda’s cell phone is four years old. It’s an old monochrome Nokia from before the days of flip phones, and it works better than any phone I have ever seen.
Despite its age, it holds a battery charge for a week, and gets reception in places you wouldn’t believe. It has been dropped a few times, [...]
A Celebration of Excellence: Two Rivers Church
In August of 2003, some friends and I came to Des Moines for a Lifehouse concert. We decided to go down a few hours early to visit Willowbrook Bible Camp, since Christy’s dad was directing the high school camp that week and a few of our younger siblings were among the campers. We ate dinner [...]
A Celebration of Excellence: Bethany Bible Chapel
I said a few weeks ago that I have been a part of seven different churches in my life. What I didn’t say is that six of those churches have been in the past six years. But from the day I was born until the day I went off to college, I went to Bethany [...]
A Celebration of Excellence: Kaio Church
Shortly after we were married and living back in Iowa, Amanda and I felt called to leave my home church and help out at Kaio Church, a new plant in Cedar Falls. Kaio was started in 2006 for one reason: there are still unsaved people in the city. Their singular vision as a church was [...]
A Celebration of Excellence: Fairbluff Bible Chapel
In the fall of 2006, Amanda and I decided to move down to the Charlotte area for the semester so she could finish her degree. She only needed six gen-ed classes to graduate, and community college in North Carolina costs about a tenth of what it costs in Iowa. Since we were both still working [...]
A Celebration of Excellence: The Great Adventure Church
I attended The Great Adventure Church during my years at Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa. As a “Bible college town”, Dubuque had a very interesting church dynamic. There were four churches in town that were led by Emmaus faculty, and while they all shared the same theological beliefs, they were vastly different in structure [...]
A Celebration of Excellence
I’ve been part of seven different churches in my life. These experiences have shown me that a church is very much like a person in a few different ways: no two are alike, they all have their faults, and most importantly, they all excel at something. In the coming weeks I’ll draw a profile of [...]
Freedom in Christ
Multiple levels of understanding of freedom in Christ.
One does because he’s weak. He doesn’t understand that he’s free, but he does it anyway.
One doesn’t because he knows he’s weak. He is beginning to understand freedom, but knows he’s not strong enough to engage in the activity.
One does because he’s strong. He understands his freedom in [...]
