temparbor

Living Truthfully, chapter 1: Living Untruthfully

Chapter 1 — Living Untruthfully “A lot of people are living untruthfully, in darkness (synonymous spiritually with falsehood, lies, denial, self-deception, bondage, and unreality). In eighteen years as a pastor, fifteen years as a counselor, and five years as a college professor, I unfortunately get a front row seat to most of the ways peopleContinue reading “Living Truthfully, chapter 1: Living Untruthfully”

Letting go of our children

Letting go of anything/anyone we love is never easy, and letting go of our children is surely one of the hardest things we will ever have to do. I was dialoging with a close friend about that over email recently, and she so beautifully captured the agony and ecstasy of the letting go season ofContinue reading “Letting go of our children”

On being right

I think maybe the Catholics are right. I went to a Catholic funeral this morning. Every time I go to a Catholic funeral, I wish I were Catholic. Seriously. Catholics know what to do with death. They’ve been doing it much the same way for hundreds of years. If your loved one dies as aContinue reading “On being right”

Big day yesterday

I had 147 unique visitors on my site yesterday. That’s just about half what I need every day in order to reach my goal of 10,000 unique visitors per month. But it’s not primarily about me, it’s about you, since you are the one who makes this work. So how can I serve you? WhatContinue reading “Big day yesterday”

Introducing my new bookstore!

I was thinking a while back, “If Amazon gave me a nickel every time someone bought a book from them after talking to me, I’d be a rich man.” Then I realized, “Hey, Amazon WILL give you money every time you refer someone to their website to buy a book!” That’s when I decided toContinue reading “Introducing my new bookstore!”

Introducing Aaron Lee Clum

I am so excited to be able to announce this today on my website, on Facebook, on Twitter, and everywhere else I can find to announce it. Aaron Clum, worship leader at my church, is a fantastically talented singer/songwriter. And oh yeah, he just happens to be like a son to me. Aaron has recently recordedContinue reading “Introducing Aaron Lee Clum”

Anxiety RX

Below is a typical response I give to religious people who are struggling with anxiety and write asking for guidance. They tend to feel as if taking medication is a cop-out and that prayer should be able to completely alleviate the problem. The thing is, in a person without clinically significant anxiety, prayer andContinue reading “Anxiety RX”

Christians who hate religion

This video has been extremely popular on the internet over the last several months. It’s the kind of thing many people would probably expect me to agree with wholeheartedly. But I don’t. It’s simplistic (a pejorative term that means naive, or simple to a ridiculous extent). It makes some good points but throws a preciousContinue reading “Christians who hate religion”

Reasons Why Churches Often Don’t Work Together #1: Introversion Among Church Leaders

To begin with, it is true that some churches do work together. When this happens it is excellent. In this series, I want to address misunderstandings people commonly have about this. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and it may sometimes not even be desirable. In this post, I’ll tell you why. Today we’llContinue reading “Reasons Why Churches Often Don’t Work Together #1: Introversion Among Church Leaders”

Ten Things Christians Say That Drive Me Crazy

[featured-image link=”null” link_single=”inherit” single_newwindow=”false”]123rf.com[/featured-image] 1. I’ll pray about it. a.) Really? When? For how long? How will you know when you’ve prayed enough? b.) Most of the time I believe this is just an excuse to avoid having to say a direct “no” to things we don’t want to do. After all, “No” is harder toContinue reading “Ten Things Christians Say That Drive Me Crazy”