Relationships

Obeying My Friend

I want to evaluate God's ideas and follow the ones that make sense. If his suggestions are difficult, costly, or even in...

What Goes Down Must Come Up

“One of the girls in our small group came to me after maybe a year or so of listening to people and she was like, ‘I fee...

I Had To Tell You

I had just asked him to tell me the story of his commitment to Jesus. He answered by telling me about a long chain of di...

Three Friends At Dawn

"It's a shooting star!" "What, where?" (Obviously, they were far above our heads). I scrambled to find the tent's zipper...

Quintuple Honor

A new church initiative led a friend to quit his job, sell his belongings, and move overseas for missionary service. But...

Overlooked

The job posting for a senior pastor required "transformational leadership," "top-notch" Bible teaching, and meeting "sta...

Reading Alone

I ran my hand across the leather cover of my study Bible and thought, "I have no idea what I just read." If reading an e...

Jesus' Guts

In a training video for pastors, the megachurch leader Josh Howerton advises them to set aside time to answer the questi...

Casting Spells

I sat in my seat, head bowed, hands open, but I couldn't focus on God. Prayer warriors were circling the room, wearing I...

Unpaid Labor

In 2012, Steven Furtick's book *Greater* debuted at an impressive #4 on the *New York Times* Advice Best Sellers List. B...

The Wobbly Table

Fifteen years ago, a freshman and I met every week at a hip coffee shop in Boston for a Bible study. We sat at a tiny ro...

Your Spiritual Plus One

A group at church asked me to speak to them about how to stay connected to their kids who had walked away from Jesus. As...

Kneeling

"I'm your pastor. Tell me." I looked down at my burger, then out the window of Huey's, looking down Madison Avenue in...

I Just Couldn't See It

"For five months I've perceived you as being arrogant to me. So I've been praying for you every day and trying to start...

The Gift of Arrest

I showed up for RZIM's beloved Christmas party. We played fun games, received our Christmas bonuses, and heard that we w...

Making A Profit

My wife and I once made a small gift to a cause we cared about. It's been a few years, and we're still getting automated...

The King Who Ran Away

"Thank you Heavenly Father...to allow us to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists, and the globalists that t...

The Life We Are Dying to Kill

I once got incredibly angry at one of my roommates because he wrote a blog with what I considered bad theology. I felt I...

Screen Door

“You want to be like a cat on a screen door.” I looked blankly at my mentor. I tried to imagine a cat hanging for its...

Reflect: Come and See

Stinky Feet

In seminary, I took a preaching class that required us to give mini-sermons in front of our peers. I agonized over every...

The End of the VIP Room

One of the perks of working at RZIM was access to the Green Room. When we hosted packed events at our headquarters, it f...

You're A Prophet Now

A former friend said there was "nothing Christian" about my "evil" actions, so he'd asked our former employer to cancel...

Out of Line

Christianity Today tells the story of a pastor who drives two members of his church to work every day. They're legal imm...

A Way Out of No Way

Growing up, I sometimes felt jittery when dinner ran late, or I had more homework to do. I wanted to turn on the TV and...

When the Room Makes Truth Unthinkable

I was on a global Skype call with RZIM's senior leaders and Ravi Zacharias himself—the famous apologist whose ministry w...

Prayers That Bounce

At Thanksgiving, we gathered in the kitchen, joined hands, bowed our heads, and prayed. But I wondered, "What's the poin...

And

In the fall of 2003, I was sitting in a chair outside Emory's dining hall by myself. But suddenly, I felt surrounded by...

When Outsiders Get It First

"I just called everyone on my phone and told them about Jesus." I was stunned. I didn't even know she was a Christian...

Convenient Amnesia

A best-selling apologist called me to talk about Ravi. He agreed that Ravi was a liar, a bully, and a predator. Then he...

Disgraced

After enduring spiritual abuse as an employee at RZIM, I could only trust a very small handful of people. I no longer kn...

Stars

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, the Narnians arrive at an island at the edge of the world, where they m...

Written

In Barracks 28 of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Betsie ten Boom coughed on a bed stuffed with fleas and lice. Corr...

True Friends Might Wound Us

When I was fifteen, my grandfather asked if he could talk with me for a moment. I could tell from the tone of his voice...

The Same Fire

I drive by the old RZIM headquarters at least once a week. Every time, I reactively grip my steering wheel tighter, look...

Despised

A church consulting group produced a report on how to engineer church growth. They recommend using data analytics to und...

Imitate Me

Chuck Johnston, my high school Bible study leader, taught me the book of James. I don't remember anything he said. But...

Imitating Christ Together

At the summer conference, the food was passable, and the bunk beds were hard. But whether the staff were stacking chairs...

The Saints

As the House of Lords fiercely debated whether or not it was appropriate to investigate British slavery in the Caribbean...

Undivided

Toward the end of his life, the missionary John Paton recalled how his father, James Paton, saw him off to college. His...

The Unlikely Disciple

The discolored, funky-smelling jerseys made middle school P.E. bad enough. But the worst part was when teams were picked...

Horse Backwash

When I served as a campus minister at Harvard, I sometimes wondered if I belonged there. Everyone seemed to have themsel...