FIRST-PERSON: God uses those with a dream
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--Nothing starts happening until somebody starts dreaming. Every accomplishment started off first as an idea in somebody's mind. It started off as a dream, as a vision, a goal.
FIRST-PERSON: Cake, Kool-Aid & more on Dec. 25
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--My sister recently found a picture of me as a mop-haired 3-year-old standing next to a birthday cake for Jesus. The cake was my idea, a burst of preschooler inspiration in response to my mother's explanation that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth. I concluded with a child's logic, "Well then, we should have a party and cake and Kool-Aid and sing happy birthday to him!"
FIRST-PERSON: T.E.A.M.W.O.R.K.
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--The success of your ministry, whether you're a pastor, a small group facilitator or a music leader, depends largely on developing a strong team with a deep sense of team spirit. I've witnessed the incredible power of a unified team to create growth and have counseled many churches that weren't growing because their team members worked as individuals and not as a team.
FIRST-PERSON: Recovering from a disaster
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--This fall Southern California witnessed the worst disaster in the history of our state. Wildfires burned more than 750,000 acres and destroyed more than 3,600 homes, and at least twenty people died. The overall damage is estimated at more than $2 billion, but you could never put a price on the lives lost and the families left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
FIRST-PERSON: When you open your Bible….
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--Application answers two questions: -- So what? -- What now?
FIRST-PERSON: Stifled by structure
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--Why is it that 95 percent of all churches in the world never grow past 300? I believe it's because their structure keeps them from growing beyond that point. Hebrews 8:13, in the Phillips paraphrase, says, "When a thing grows weak and out of date it is obviously soon going to disappear." That's also true of churches. If a church cannot change, it will eventually die.
FIRST-PERSON: 10 essentials for giving purpose to your church
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--How do you structure a church so it just keeps on growing and doesn't plateau? I believe there are 10 essentials you must focus on as you structure your church.
FIRST-PERSON: Bill Bright: a quiet giant
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--Usually when a great and influential world leader dies, there are a multitude of headlines and news reports marking the event, but there was little fanfare when Bill Bright passed into eternity the other day. If you're scratching your head wondering who Bright was, that's exactly the way he would want it, but within evangelical circles he is paired with Billy Graham as the two most influential Christian leaders of the last 50 years.
FIRST-PERSON: A conversation with Bill Bright
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--The following is a brief interview via telephone I conducted last year with Campus Crusade for Christ's founder, Bill Bright, who died July 19 at the age of 81.
FIRST-PERSON: Does spiritual growth just happen?
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--Many churches act as though spiritual growth is automatic once a person is born again. They operate with no organized plan for following up new believers and no comprehensive strategy for developing members to maturity. They leave it all to chance.
