Lifelong Learning
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It is a good practice to glean what you can from those who know how to practice well. Last week VP3 hosted a webinar called, “Best Practices in Local Church Leadership Development.” Three panelists joined our time to share what they have learned over the years regarding an investment in the formation of those within […]
During the month of March my wife and I led a mission team down to southern Brazil to serve at a ministry called Chain of Love. For two-and-a-half weeks we immersed ourselves in this community that provides, loving, secure, and caring homes for abandoned and abused street children in Brazil. If ever I encountered a […]
Last week twenty-seven of us gathered together in Sioux Falls for a retreat. By the end of our two days together we realized we were no ordinary group of twenty-seven people. We became a remarkable community of brothers and sisters in need of some space, perspective, words, silence and friendship. The theme for our gathering […]
Today Brian Steenhoek and I facilitated a webinar called, “Discipleship: The Critical Need in Leadership Development Today.” It seemed to scratch an itch from the responses of those who attended. We thought we would offer you a condensed version of some of our notes here.
To be honest, a theme I’ve noticed in my own walk lately has been dying. Now, although it sounds silly, I must confess that even letting you in on this will make me wonder if I’ve just entered my final days…a peculiar sort of superstition. But I have heard stories of people who said, “I’m […]
We recently had a VP3 staff team day, complete with Christmas party. One of the things we did was share stories about the people we have encountered this past year through the ministry of VP3…people who have been gifts to us. They have given to us the gift of knowing a little more of their […]
I loved going to the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk as a kid. The stores and amusement rides, the pizza places and popcorn shops, the balloons and cotton candy were all wonderful. Sundays on the boardwalk, however, were something less than wonderful. When I was growing up there were the Blue laws in Ocean City. These […]
Few recent books have helped communicate the transforming power of understanding our lives as a story than Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life (Thomas Nelson, 2009). While working on the movie adaptation of his previous memoir-like book Blue Like Jazz,Miller discovers that what makes for […]
Where do you go to get inspiration? For so many of us the concerns and demands of job and family squeeze our routines into fairly un-inspired existences. Our horizons shrink and it becomes increasingly difficult to see beyond the many everyday necessities of our lives. What we desperately need in the rhythm and routine of […]
Randy, Brian and I will be hosting a VP3 webinar on Thursday, December 1st, entitled “Crucibles: Times of Disorientation in a Leader’s Life“ We would love for you to join us. Description: What am I to do as a leader when life simply does not make sense? These seasons will come, and they often prove to be […]
There seems to be a good bit of talk these days about “changing the culture.” What I bump into is the application of this concern toward a local church community. It is a good concern from what I hear, and what I notice in my own collection of concerns. In a recent conversation with a […]
Meditating is a very human process. We meditate all the time. We each have a capacity to pay deep attention to things and people. The critical question is not whether or not we meditate, but rather what are we meditating upon?Keri Wyatt puts it this way, If we spend time listening to MTV or reading […]