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The Gospel According to James Brown
The late, legendary “Godfather of Soul” James Brown was known for his high energy dance moves and unique voice. In his live shows he performed with every ounce of his soul: singing, dancing, and that patented howl. Every shake, jitter, and jiggle looked like it was hammered out with so much passion it was painful.…
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Trick or Treat!
On Halloween, our place as a family is in our neighborhood surrounded by people, not sequestered away from it. Today is Halloween. That means every family in my neighborhood will be outside walking around at the same time. Every parent will be going door to door with their children, laughing as they scream for candy, and…
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Moneyball And The Church
While working with college age young adults and singles, I saw a lot of turnover as younger folks tend to move away, marry away, serve away, and even walk away from the church. This led me to invest heavily into our leader development and small group coaching. I finally saw the movie Moneyball and I believe there…
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Live Your Legacy
My Aunt died late this summer. I flew up to Western New York with my entire family to attend and speak at the wake, funeral, and gravesite ceremony. We told personal stories, laughed a lot, and shared a few days together as an extended family. Her legacy? As I said from the stage, she would fight…
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Chutes & Ladders
Do you remember the game “Chutes and Ladders” from when you were a kid? It came with a board, some game pieces, and dice. When I was a kid, I loved playing “Chutes and Ladders.” I remember rolling the dice, hoping to land on the long ladder that reaches all the way to the top,…
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Singing Songs While Bullets Fly
I hope that each time my faith is tested, that I come through for Jesus. I read courageous stories about ancient Christians under persecution for their faith and I wonder if many of us can measure up. In the pages of history, Christians persevere through slow, violent deaths. In today’s U.S., churchgoers leave the church…
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And He’s Buying a Wormhole to Heaven
I’m writing in response to recent comments made by Stephen Hawking. I have not the education nor the accolades that Hawking possesses. Please forgive my lack of such credentials, just as I forgive his lack of sound research or academic honesty. Reknowned physicist and uber braniac Stephen Hawking has declared that “heaven” is not real, and…
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Justice, Mercy, Jesus, and Osama bin-Laden
It is never a good thing for us to celebrate death, since it is the result of our sin against God. However this time, my emotion and desire has clearly overwhelmed my theology. Osama bin-Laden is dead. The man who orchestrated massive terror attacks against the United States and other nations has been identified, killed,…
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What’s In A Name?
What’s in a name? It depends on who you ask. In Quentin Tarantino’s movie “Pulp Fiction” Butch Coolidge once said that in America, names don’t mean anything (or something similar I won’t repeat here). I’ve always found that interesting, because naming a child is a one shot deal. Throughout the Bible and indeed in many ancient cultures,…
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Saint Patrick Deserves His Annual Recognition
I took this photo of Saint Patrick on my last trip to the Emerald Isle, near the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland. Every year Americans of proclaimed Irish ancestry celebrate a day dedicated to Saint Patrick by wearing green, listening to loud music (possibly traditional folk music,) and consuming considerable quanities of alcohol in various forms…