Today, I want to address another obstacle we face that keeps us from giving to God. In Luke 21, we read, Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. Luke 21.1 So Jesus is hanging outside the Temple on one of the last days of his life, and here’s how […]
Friday, November 8 we hosted our first ever conference for other churches. We called it “matter.” The purpose of the conference was to inspire, encourage, equip and challenge Catholic parishes to awaken the faithful, reach the lost and make church matter. The conference sold out 550 seats; we added 50 more and they sold out […]
The Matter conference is now less than a week away, and the official countdown is on. I’ll take this opportunity, probably my last given the way the week is shaping up, to give you a peak behind the curtain about what you can expect. A crowd. Organizers capped attendance at 550, which was all we […]
From time to time I like to give my faithful blog readers information on what’s new and what’s next. So, in no particular order, here goes: Travel/Speaking Stuff Tom and I were most recently in Dallas (second trip there this fall) presenting at a huge conference for religious educators and parish ministers. Earlier in the […]
As human beings we have freedom to act and react to life. We have the ability to respond to the events that happen to us. And how we choose to respond determines the course of our life. When you look back over the arc of your life to date, how you responded to certain situations, […]
“For a while when our book Rebuilt came out, I was like a proud first time parent, who just couldn’t stop talking about it and how well it was doing. Then some of my staff had a little intervention and told me to knock it off, and I have (mostly). Nevertheless dear blog readers, it […]
In the 17th chapter of Luke’s Gospel Jesus gives his disciples some relational instructions. Basically he is telling them to forgive one another, and to place no limits on their willingness to do that. It is a hard message for them to hear (as it is for us, if we’re actually listening to it and […]
“In our current message series we are looking at what we are calling “breathing room.” This weekend we want to get to the root cause of our problems when it comes to our struggle with breathing room. Why do we gravitate towards a lifestyle that drowns out breathing room? It’s true: Modern life pushes us […]
“Probably the most famous parable, or story of Jesus comes in Luke’s Gospel and begins like this: A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, “Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. Luke 15.11-12 More shocking than […]
“Pope Francis’ blockbuster interview this week pointedly rejects a Church of “small-minded rules.” He said we cannot make the Universal Church a “nest for our own mediocrity.” He said a great many other things as well, including the comment that much of the Church’s civic discourse has become “obsessed” with homosexuality and gay marriage. And […]
