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This past August marked twenty years of me serving in pastoral ministry. Over the years, God has taught me many lessons. Here are some of them in no particular order: I have made more mistakes than I can count. The ministry is all of His grace, not my works. It is a miracle that I am still in the ministry. God alone has sustained me. If you do not know that you are called by God, you will never make…

Every four years, we all hear the same familiar refrain, “This is the most important election of our lifetime. If __________ wins, America will become unfixable.” This is propaganda to incite fear. Politicians and their advisors know that fear is one of the strongest emotions and causes people to do things that they otherwise would not do. Unfortunately, countless Christians have fallen into this trap even though a spirit of fear does not come from God (2 Timothy 1:7.) In…

Over the last sixteen years, we have witnessed a miraculous change at Antioch. When I arrived as pastor over sixteen years ago, the church was like virtually every other church in America: we lost 80-90% of our young people to the world by the time they were twenty years old. This continued for several years. However, by the grace of God we have seen that trend completely flip. Currently well over 90% of the young people raised in our church…

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. During October, most churches do something nice for their pastor. As a pastor of a great church, I have been very blessed with creative and meaningful gifts over the years. In fact, much of what I say here, I say because of how meaningful Antioch’s members have been to me. As October approaches, what is it that your pastor truly wants? As a pastor it is really awkward to ask for specific things. I am…

A very close friend of mine is a missionary in a hostile country where they still have the death penalty for converting to Christianity. He and I talk often and encourage one another in the work that we do. A while back, I shared with him my frustrations at the lack of fruit that I was seeing in the church God has graciously allowed me to serve. Today, while walking to work, I was able to share with Him about…

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I…

In just a few weeks, I will turn 38 if the Lord wills. As this birthday approaches I have had many thoughts on my life that I wanted to share for the edification of others. (It will sound like rambling, but there is a point, I promise.) I also want to be transparent. Many times we see people on the outside and have no idea what is actually going on in their lives. I hope this view into my personal…

Quite often David’s adultery with Bathsheba is used by Christian people as a means of support or encouragement to those who have fallen into sin. There is no doubt that David repented and that God forgave Him and used Him for His glory. This is a tremendous testimony to the grace of God and His redemptive power. However, I feel that many times we shorten the narrative and ignore the consequences of his sin. Yes, Uriah died. Yes, David’s reputation…

Recently I have seen a huge push by those who are pro-choice that the government should have no say so in what a woman does with her body. As a pro-life Christian, I completely agree. In fact, almost every single pro-life Christian I know would agree with that statement. In fact, the pro-life position goes even further. We do not want the government telling women or men or boys or girls or babies what they can do with their bodies.…

No matter where I go or who I talk to it seems like the majority of Christians in our culture are dissatisfied with their church or are having a hard time finding a good church to worship and fellowship with. Through these conversations it has become abundantly clear that the problem is not the church as an organization but those who profess faith in Christ. Almost every conversation or article about how bad the church is centers around one or…

Quit Blaming John Piper for Calvinism: Why the resurgence of Calvinism in the SBC is the result of Adrian Rogers, Paige Patterson, Jerry Vines, and the other leaders of the Conservative Resurgence It would appear that there is a growing number of young Calvinists within various denominations but particularly the Southern Baptist Convention. This has encouraged some but alarmed others. Numerous voices have come out bemoaning this fact or rejoicing in this fact. I do not think that there is…

I once asked a man if he would follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. He stared at the ground and did not answer. Eventually his answer came, “I am not going to say, ‘No.’” However, he would never say, “Yes,” nor did he follow Christ’s teachings. I have many similar conversations over the years. People know what God requires of them, yet they will not do it. They keep delaying and putting off what they know they should do. However,…