It was one of those weekends as a leader that you anticipate/dread with equal measures of enthusiasm and uncertainty. Our church had an opportunity to host the Glory in the Highest concert tour here in Blacksburg. After deliberation and an email survey, we jumped at it. There were more than 900 folks at the concert [...]

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan My short synopsis is: “One of those simple but powerful books that challenges comfortable “Christianity.” Can being a Christian really be “comfortable?” Peaceful perhaps. But anything but comfortable.” This is one of those generational message books. It seems that often the Lord seems to raise [...]

Green (The Circle, Book 0: The Beginning and the End) by Ted Dekker I have read the Circle Trilogy and reviewed Black and Red on my blog. I was thrilled to see that Thomas Nelson publishers was offering Green as part of their blogger review program. After receiving it from them, I tore into it, [...]

Here’s our annual ElfYourself video. We’ve been practicing for months: Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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We woke early today to go eat Thanksgiving breakfast with the Cook family. That itself was wonderful, but in the grand perspective of things, it’s rather surreal. Darrell and Laura have been great friends for a long time – since 1995 when Carolyn and I first arrived back in Arkansas for me to serve as [...]

How do you come before the Lord? And, with what do you come before Him? Psalm 100 is one of those magnificent and attention-altering passages of Scripture that beckon the reader out of temporal living. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. [...]

The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun by Brother Yun Even before I was able to read this dynamic account of Brother Yun’s life as a Chinese pastor and underground church leader, my book was persecuted. I found it on the floor one morning with the front cover partially ripped [...]

Invite your friends, and help us spread the word! You can buy tickets here.

As a follower of Christ, I sense it all the time in conversations with others who a) are not a follower of Christ or b) are only a nominal Christian. It gets easier to detect the more contact you have with the person. I usually notice it in the eyes. It’s a far-off look. A [...]

And for your viewing entertainment…

Yes, Virginia, there is a Halloween. Not that we thought it was an exclusively Arkansas entertainment event… We spent a relaxing, overcast day with college football, a neighborhood parade and activities for kids in costume and of course, trick or treating. Adelyn was a clown this year – and she dressed as one too. She [...]

The Toyota Way Field Book by Jeffrey Liker It’s not that I didn’t like The Toyota Way. On the contrary, the principles behind the Toyota Company’s process and philosophy are dynamic. This book, however, is drier than Corn Flakes. I plowed through a full 50% of it before I finally set it down. The author [...]

A new local news site – The NRVHub – is sponsoring a great competition. The local church that registers 100 users for their site by October 31 will receive $500! I’d like to humbly ask you to consider registering to help Northstar Church (or another local church if you’re a member there). You don’t have [...]

Ok… so I can’t come up with something special and fru-fru like “Gladituesday.” Amy is one of our favorite friends from OBU, and she’s surpassed my blog in Carolyn’s Safari bookmarks. Although she blogs about estrogenized topics a lot, I do enjoy lurking and will even admit to a beaucoup of belly laughs as a [...]