So I’ve been putting off writing this for a while ever since Brett asked a few weeks…ok maybe months ago now. For many reasons I didn’t feel ready to write this and to be honest it’s still something I don’t feel quite equipped to write. Not because I know nothing about singleness…ha! But because the emotions and stages and experience changes daily and is sometimes hard to pin down and describe. I have been single [...]
at this present point in time my wife valerie [aka the beautiful val] and i are living and working and interning and ministering with the simple way community in philadelphia... before this i was a youth slash student pastor [disclaimer: no youth or students were slashed during my time there] at a vineyard church in stellenbosch, outside cape town in south africa for 6 years. i remember the one staff meeting we had in the [...]
Oh. Oh? As in really? You... you're sure? Certain? All-powerful. Oh? Faithful. Oh? All-loving. Unconditionally so. Even me? Even my stuff? Me? Oh? Oh really? As in 'really really?' Like real miracles? Actual miraculous occurances? Blind seeing, deaf hearing, lame walking? Dead being raised? Oh. I get it. It's a metaphoric death. An inner blindness. Deaf to the words of the Holy Scriptures speaking to my disobedient ears. Able to walk tall in the knowledge [...]
‘...and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’ [Acts 2.47b] what comes just before the ‘and’ of that passage that caused such huge growth in the early church? was it their amazing evangelism plans or ABC steps of getting people to follow Jesus? none of the above! it was meeting together, eating together, loving God and loving people together – basically just being church – listening to preaching, seeing miracles [...]