Pursuing life lived W.E.L.L.
There are so many promises connected to this “abiding principle.” I will be fruitful if I abide. I will experience all of Christ if I abide. I will be more effective praying if I abide. IF I abide, THEN I will enjoy a productive and rewarding Christian life.
I want to share this article from a pastors wife that was posted on Mother's Day a couple years ago. I know some moms who prayed for their kids and worked hard to raise them right and tried all they could to help their children become successful adults only to see their child make poor …
Continue reading "Encouragement For Mothers who feel like a Failure"
Did you know Crown Financial Ministries offers an online professional quality career interest inventory assessment program? You get the basic results for $25 and more in depth results if you are willing to pay more. As a pastor I often get asked to pray for people's job situations and often recommend tools like this to …
Continue reading "Crown Financial Ministries Career Direct Assessment Job Search Tools"
This year I making more of an effort to help other church pastors and ministry leaders find helpful resources for their ministry. And by sharing my list with you it will be easy for me and my volunteers to remember where they are. I used to work in the marketing department for well known brand …
Continue reading "Free Photo and Graphics Resources that may be useful for Church Ministry"
Here are links to some spiritual gift and personality tests I like. The more experience you get serving the Lord the more effective these test are. It is fun to study spiritual gifts and consider what your gift(s) might be. The topic lists from GotQuestions.org are helpful. The first four resources and free and the …
Continue reading "7 Resources to Help Discover your Spiritual Gifts"
As I was sitting in the waiting area getting my tire repaired at Belle Plaine Coop Tire I picked up this book “Lemons: The World’s Worst Cars” and it had the stories and pictures of cars from the past that turned out to be not so great. It included flying cars that eventually crashed, the …
I have been sharing these Connecting with God booklets for years with people of all ages. Here is a helpful instruction guide to give you ideas how to best share your faith using these booklets. Using a booklet to share the gospel is helpful because it takes the pressure off of you. You don’t have …
Continue reading "Using the Connecting with God evangelism booklet"
My favorite free Bible app is YouVersion. My favorite Bible Study PC Program is Wordsearch but their Android/iOS apps are lame. If you have a lot of money to spend Logos Bible Software and their apps are good but their books are high priced. I also have study Bibles I bought for Kindle & Google Play …
Continue reading "Best Bible Study App Deal of the New Year"
It is hard to find Christian movies on Netflix now that many of the producers have taken them to their own streaming services like Pureflix.com which is sad because I think Christian movies should be out in the public arena like Netflix so that non-Christians might have an opportunity to easily see them. I am …
Continue reading "How to find Christian Movies on Netflix with Secret Codes"
I have been driving around with a big "I AM SECOND.com" sign on the back window of my truck ever since my adult son died of an accidental drug overdose in 2016. When people ask me what is "I AM SECOND.com" I tell them it is a website full of videos of famous and not-so-famous …
Continue reading "How God Gave Hope and a New Life to an Addict"
Recently I shared how other people can encourage, inspire and speak wisdom from the Lord into your life just like the Apostle Paul did in the short visit he had with the Thessalonians before he was chased out of town. Pastor Peter West went to be with Jesus in 2011 but we used to go …
Continue reading "Share your God-given wisdom and life experiences with someone"
I was cleaning out some files and found this newspaper clipping from my first full time ministry opportunity (1996). So thankful to Pastors George Kalb and John Fuller (now pastor of https://www.prairielakeschurch.org) for giving me the opportunity and teaching me so much. I've been serving in different ministries for 24 years and there are other …
Continue reading "Thankful for Great Beginnings in Pastoral Ministry"
Consider sharing your life with a kid in need. Kids need to be cared for and trained up to be successful in life. You may be able to help a child in crisis for days or weeks or months. Sometimes foster children become adoptable. Sharing your life and family with a troubled child can be …
Continue reading "Kids need Families – Foster Care and Adoption Resources"
https://youtu.be/rHnSIHIg4XI For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)
FamilyLife Ministries made a movie about the struggles of parenting and it is currently streaming on Neflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Google Play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i80XydPGpQE From http://familylifeministries.org/likearrows/about/ "When conflict, rebellion, and resentment overwhelm their family, Charlie and Alice are forced to rethink their parenting strategy. In the process, they realize how critical intentionality and focus …
Continue reading "Like Arrows – A parenting movie from FamilyLife"
I've served as a church pastor for over 20 years and in that time I've seen the tragic results of people giving into sex/living together before marriage. A committed Christ-follower will not regret choosing purity over unbridled passion - beware that Satan uses lust and desire to trap couples. God created sex and it is …
Continue reading "The Dangers of Living Together Before Marriage"
I met the couple in this article (I'm standing in between them in this picture) when I was on a missions trip to Chile in 2014 without realizing at the time how amazing, faithful and courageous they are. Read this update about their recent church planting adventures in Mexico that was recently printed in Alliance …
I want to share some encouraging words and resources for you if you have cancer or know someone who does. As a pastor I am often asked to pray for people that have been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer can seem like a life termination notice that seeks to destroy plans and dreams. The discomfort and …
Many years ago when I first started following Jesus I would listen to Chuck Swindoll on Insight for Living almost every weeknight. Since there was no local church I could attend then, Chuck was most influential in my spiritual growth when I was I was a new Christian. I deeply respect Chuck's teaching and opinions. …
Continue reading "Why Chuck Swindoll is Preaching from the New Living Translation"
When I was a youth and family pastor I would offer parenting classes and seminars and my biggest frustration was the great parents that seemed to be doing a great job would come to the classes and the parents that really needed help would do everything they could to avoid the parenting training that would …
New Logos Bible app click pic of page and it looks up Bible references
Our population recently reached the 7 billion milestone; you are one in 7 billion. That is a lot of people and it’s hard to see the significance of the individual with such a large number. So what if we scaled down that huge population to just 100 individuals to see what makes up the world: …
GARY, IN—Tapping his years of undergraduate study, seminary experience, and hours of personal reading and reflection each week, local pastor Darrell Warren posted a meticulously researched, impeccably reasoned church blog post on God’s sovereignty as it relates to man’s suffering—a missive that approximately four people will end up reading, sources confirmed Monday. Entitled “Our Sour …
