I’m a part of a generation called “Baby Boomers.” I recently read an interesting statistic about us Boomers. According the Barna group, 31% of us attended church regularly prior to 2020, but only 22% kept attending post-pandemic.
I’m a part of a generation called “Baby Boomers.” I recently read an interesting statistic about us Boomers. According the Barna group, 31% of us attended church regularly prior to 2020, but only 22% kept attending post-pandemic.
Every year as the Christmas season unfolds and churches gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus, pastors and ministry leaders, myself included, find ourselves navigating the tension of embracing the essence of the season- the birth of Jesus, while also balancing the additional work of managing services, programs and additional end of the year tasks and to-dos.
It’s been over a month since my friend Allen Johansen entered glory. I was privileged to be able to visit Allen in Spokane less than two weeks before he passed away.. Since I will not be able to attend his memorial service, I’ll write a few things in remembrance.
It’s the 21st century. Every day, we are inundated with an overload of information from online, print or broadcast media, that the word of God can be lost and deemed meaningless. But we know that God’s word really matters. We are all called to preach, informally or formally, about how the Holy Spirit transforms lives. I can think of several times in my own life when, listening to a message from God’s Word, I knew God was speaking to me, as if he’d read my mail. Preaching changes us!
This past Easter, I preached a gospel message on the resurrection story from John 20:1-18. At the end, I prayed and offered those present an opportunity to place their faith/trust in Jesus Christ and led them in what has often been called “the sinners prayer.” I encouraged them to confess their newfound faith to someone and reminded them of the Apostle Paul’s promise in his letter to the Romans.
I’ve been a Giants fan my entire life. I was weaned on Mays, McCovey, Cepeda and hot dog wrappers flying in the gusts of wind at Candlestick Park. Growing up, it seemed like we always came in second, but then we won three World Series titles between 2010-2024. Those were good days to be a Giant fan. And then, in 2015, I was offered the job of serving the Giants was their chaplain, a job I enjoyed the next four years.
When was the last time you wrote a letter, I mean a real letter? When was the last time you received one? I still write an occasional thank you note in longhand, but it’s been a while since I received an actual letter or sat down to write one.
On Saturday, December 31, I traveled to Albania with former BASOM pastoral resident Bryson Bridges. We will be ministering to about 120 Albanians who serve on the staff of Cru, a faith-based community originally founded as Campus Crusade for Christ, reaching out to university students with the good news of Jesus.
Through our partnership with Kairos, our Pastoral Residents will have the option to enter a bachelors, masters, or doctoral program during their residency at a fraction of the cost of traditional seminaries.
