• Heartprints

    Christian Parenting Mistakes: #2 We Settle for Obedience

    As I began my adventure of parenting I thought that obedience was the goal. If they were in danger, obeying immediately could save their lives. Unlike animals that are trained to follow orders, people by God’s design were created to obey in the context of relationship. In the great commission, Jesus doesn’t just say, “go and teach them all that I have commanded you.” He tells us to go and make disciples. Then we are to baptize and teach them His commands. The word “make” means we will invest time and ourselves to build a relationship. Obedience is meant to come from a willing heart. Who better to disciple than…

  • Engage

    The Cost of Our Spiritual Adoption

    Stacks of notarized documents, contracts, home inspections, social worker interviews, fire extinguisher requirements, bank statements, medical exams, blood tests, and more…these are just a few of the many customary items required to receive approval to adopt a child. The process is tedious, time-consuming, exhausting, frustrating, and…expensive. The average cost to adopt a child is $35,000 USD. That is the average cost for just one child. (It takes a village of lawyers, social workers, and adoption professionals.) The cost alone scares many families away from adoption. According to Hank Fortener, founder of the crowd-funding platform, AdoptTogether, 70% of couples considering adoption are deterred because of the costs. In the end, only…

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    Christian 12-Step: A Path to Maturity

    This week I’m happy to have as my guest columnist Patrice Oakley, who describes herself as “a grateful believer in Jesus Christ and a Spiritual Formation leader.” Next month she graduates with her Master of Arts in Christian Education (MACE) degree from Dallas Theological Seminary:   I first became attracted to Christian 12-step recovery, a grace-based, scripturally grounded ministry, because of a painful past—my family’s legacy of alcoholism. My mother lived disconnected, mentally ill; and my alcoholic father worked excessively. Neither knew Jesus. Consequently, I developed a “heart disease.” I’ve struggled with the hole in my heart—not physical, but an emotional and spiritual vacuum.  The Holy Spirit drew me to…

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    Can I Get A Witness?

    I am a romantic and an idealist at heart, and so it will come as no surprise that I love the TV show, This is Us. During this first season there has been unspoken tension between Kevin, a selfish 36-year-old actor, and his stepdad, Miguel. Every time that Miguel tries to help, affirm or encourage Kevin, Kevin rejects him and pushes him away. But one day, Kevin is anxious about the opening of his show and so Miguel says, Kevin, you remind me of your dad, you know that? The way that you move your hands when you talk, the way that you walk across a room. Sometimes you remind…

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    Disciplemaking Focus for Women’s Ministry

    Has your ministry team been event-driven with one person overseeing Bible studies, another the retreat, & another the Christmas brunch? Does your current women’s ministry need to have more structure and purpose to what you organize and fund? Do you see the same women involved in your ministry with rarely a new face? If you answered yes to any (or all) of those questions, it is a good time to…enhance your women’s ministry for disciplemaking. What Is Disciplemaking? The terms “discipleship” and “disciplemaking” often get confused. Discipleship typically refers to the normal process for Christians to grow in their faith through Bible studies, prayer, worship, & small groups. It usually…

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    What makes you a disciple?

    Meet Carolyn Harris, one of my stellar DTS interns. She's a physician who left her practice to train to bring the healing ministry of Jesus to others. Enjoy her new discovery:   I’m a nerd. I love numbers, Sudoku puzzles, and getting lost in reading for hours at a time. So when an “A-ha!” moment confronts me like the splash of a cool fountain on a hot summer day, I am refreshed. Imagine my joy when I was plugging along learning how to read biblical Greek and came upon the word for disciple. It’s the same root word for mathematics. Intrigued, I considered what the two had in common. I…

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    It’s All about Me

    I have two dogs, both Westies. We’ve had Libby since she was about 8 weeks old, but Maggie was lost and ended up at our house. When Maggie gets in my lap, Libby worms her way in. In Libby’s mind, my life centers around her. When she wants me to scratch her, she doesn’t give up. She pushes under my hand. If that doesn’t work, she nudges me. If all else fails, she stares at me until I pay attention to her.   As followers of Jesus, we are like Libby, thinking that God is here for us, not the other way around.   I am reminded of Job. As…

  • Impact

    Blessed are the Bankrupt

      Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . (Mt. 5:3) What stunning, shocking words! What king announces his rule by calling the poor in spirit to him, the bankrupt, those with no resources who bring nothing to him? Only one. The King who is lowly in heart, who offers a light burden because He is not bent down by the weight of pride. Amazingly these are the first recorded words of discipleship Jesus uttered. Jesus requires bankruptcy to enter His kingdom… That’s what it means to be poor in spirit: spiritual bankruptcy, a total lack of resources to do what ultimately…

  • Impact

    Last Things First

      Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken The Great Commission was the last words Jesus said, but it was among the first thoughts in His mind as He began His ministry. Why was it that one of the first actions He took was to choose disciples (Mt. 4:18-22) if He did not have a purpose in mind for them? He certainly did not intend to spend the better part of three years preparing followers for nothing… And why did He persevere so relentlessly with them when they rejected His message and thought like Satan (Mark 8:33) or created more confusion than clarity when a father sought their help for…

  • Impact

    Start With the End in View

      Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Jesus started with the end in view. From the first day of His earthly ministry to the last, He had His two-fold purpose before Him: redemption and preparation, the cross and the commission. He came to provide redemption for dying men and women. But what good would His redemptive death be if there were no one to tell others what it means? How could He establish a redemptive movement if He had no one to start it? That’s why He declared to His Father before the cross that He had accomplished His will by making the Father known to those He had…