Church

As many of you did, I watched the breaking news coverage of the Supreme Court's ruling on legalizing gay marriage. If you missed it live, I'm sure you were soon bombarded with social media outbursts from both sides of the debate. At least for one news cycle, it bumped the Confederate Flag from the most-trending item on both Facebook and Twitter. To be honest, the Court's ruling didn't surprise me. Nor did it dishearten or discourage me. Anyone who thinks gay marriage and the surrounding issues is just a passing fad has missed the larger cultural shift that began in the 1960s. Gay marriage is a symptom of this shift, and it's important for people of faith to not miss the larger issues involved. Our cultural has shifted -- dramatically -- to moral relativism. Up until modern times, most people generally subscribed to the idea that a certain baseline of…

I’m sure you’ve heard of placebos and the placebo effect. Clinical trials have shown that some people who believe they are getting a real medication will get better – even if it’s only a sugar pill. Scientists have even shown that if someone is given decaffeinated coffee, but believes it is caffeinated, scans will show that their brain has been activated in the same way as if it had been real coffee. Hope can be easily manipulated. Here’s the downside to placebos: False hope will eventually disappoint us. Then what do you do when your hopes are dashed and life feels empty and meaningless? At Mountainview, our journey through Romans 8 came to an end this past weekend and it did so in grand fashion. On the one hand, Romans 8 is filled with weighty theology. The mistake we often make is to think that theology is theoretical, not practical. Not…

This past weekend I had the opportunity to guest preach at the Littleton Church of Christ. The Littleton Church is a wonderful group of people who meet only about 10-15 away from Mountainview, the church I'm privileged to serve as senior pastor. Our two churches are both a part of what is known as the American Restoration Movement (Christian Church, Church of Christ, and Disciples of Christ). For several years, the Littleton Church was led by Collin Packer, the son of one of my first friends in ministry -  Barry Packer. When I was a very young minister (21!) serving my first church in San Diego, Barry become one of my best ministry friends. I'm still very thankful for the lunches we shared at Fuddruckers in Grossmont Center. Over the last few years, I enjoyed meeting with Collin and hopefully provided him with the same encouragement his dad provided me. My wife…

Here’s an important thing to remember: after you come to faith in Jesus, your old self doesn’t automatically fade away. If there’s one thing we all have in common, it’s that we all want to change for the better. I don’t know many parents that say, “I really want to strive to be the worst parent,” or couples who say to one another, “Let’s allow our marriage to crumble.” And rarely – if ever – will you hear anyone say, “My resolution this year is to gain a lot of weight and eat as unhealthy as possible!” A quick search on Google or Amazon reminds us that we spend billions of dollars a year trying to improve ourselves. There is something inside of each of us that longs to change for better. But the fact of the matter is – we can’t make ourselves better. Living as a follower of…