It's official -- I've been trained to make coffee. In order to continue consuming mass quantities of free coffee at work, I had to go to training. That seemed fair enough to me. Now I'm dangerous ...

"Divine appointments." That’s a phrase I first heard several years ago and it immediately made sense. A divine appointment is one that God places in your path. It may be an unexpected phone call, a question from a stranger, or even the reason behind why you went to Coco’s instead of somewhere else to eat.I enjoyed a divine appointment last Friday night as I was leaving work. Our parking deck is less than a block from our building and I had just crossed over Broadway on my way to go home. Looking over my shoulder, I see Steve Denney walking up behind me.Steve is the pastor at CityWalk Christian Church, the downtown church that LifePoint supports with our missions tithe. We’ve had the blessing of helping Steve establish a different type of church for the ever-growing downtown community.Rather than hop in the car and head home, I ended up taking…

Why are most people OK with Jesus but not too hip about the church? That’s a question that modern-day followers of Jesus need to wrestle with. Many pre-Christians and non-church-going folks are attracted to Jesus -- but not his church. In some cases, it stems from a lack of truly understanding Jesus. In my own life, as I’ve learned more about Jesus, it often challenges me to change something I’d rather hold onto. I’ve discovered that Jesus is far from a soft and cuddly action figure. He’s a cultural and moral risk-taker who challenges his followers to do the same.That might be enough to unsettle a few of those who claim to like Jesus but not the church.But that’s only part of the answer. The other part of the answer lies on the inside, not on the outside. It’s a call for the church to practice self-reflection.It’s too easy to…

As I have said before, I will say again: I am big fan of all-things Google. One of the many things I enjoy about Google are the little surprises they throw your way ... like the ability to do math by typing it in the search bar. Try it sometime: type “2+2” and hit enter. Or put “half a cup in teaspoons” and hit search.In an age when corporations are all about protecting their “brand,” Google again stands out. Have you ever visited Google and seen a different version of the Google logo? (Visit the archive of Google logos).Churches lose their way when they become concerned about their “brand.” It’s easy to fall into the image-driven trap of our culture -- to worry more about how you’re perceived than what you’ve become.Jesus had brand identity: love God and love others.

I started a weekly Q&A at LifePoint last Sunday. We began circulating question cards a few weeks earlier and the response has been really good. It's open to any questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, LifePoint, or the SETI project. OK, maybe no questions about UFO’s.