That is an interesting question, which I once heard Pastor Perry Noble ask, and answer. It was actually a friend of his who asked him the question originally and his answer was “start a church.” Which is exactly what he did, planting what is now easily one of the largest, fastest growing churches in the […]
Category: Discipleship
As we begin a new year, we are going to look at worry. And our goal is to learn to worry less and move in the direction of eliminating worry. And as we begin, I want to make two clarifications: There are some among you who believe that worry is inevitable. You would say that […]
The year that is coming to a close was an interesting one from many perspectives. Personally it was one of the most consequential and fulfilling years of my whole life. And though there were some grave disappointments and set backs, I would say I enjoyed 2013 as much as any and more than most. Here […]
My associate Tom and I are in Las Vegas for a keynote speech to a National Association of Catholic Lay Ministers. Why the Association meets in Las Vegas is a very good question. I guess the ministers like to gamble…at least with their choice of keynote speakers. While I am here, I am working on […]
Even though all is not well in the Catholic Church these days, we’ve been here before. One particularly low point came in the early 1200’s: Rome was addicted to intrigue, belabored by scandal, besieged by enemies, and plagued by intractable problems. Just about that time a young man, who desired greatly only to serve God, […]
It has been a little wistful to see the final days of Pope Benedict. I, of course, did not know him, though I did meet him on several occasions. When I was a student in Rome he was already a very famous theologian who worked at the Vatican. He walked to work every day and […]
When it came to the title of our forth-coming book, Rebuilt, (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2013) the publisher and editor decided what it would be. But, we were actually delighted with their choice. Rebuilt is a word that appears dozens of times in the Bible, and is a basic exercise entrusted by God […]
In our upcoming book we devote a whole chapter to small groups, because that’s how important we think they are to parish life. And we acknowledge that they are a very hard sell in a Catholic setting (maybe they’re a hard sell in other settings too, I’ve never tried to sell them anywhere else). So […]
We are in the second week of our new message series for the New Year. This week we’re talking about getting to know your story better. It’s important to invest time in knowing your story, or get to know it better. If you do, I guarantee you will learn more, far more than you ever […]
This weekend we begin a new series for the new year, and it’s all about story. Your story. The story of your life. Your life is a story. And you’ve already lived part of that story and probably your past stories shape your current story. And the decisions you’re making right now, will one day […]
