I have a confession to make. For most of my life, I have hated praying. I have always known it was important and, theoretically, one of the most powerful tools made available to followers of Jesus. But I rarely experienced that power in all the years I spent growing up in church, or as a volunteer and professional leader in various ministries. Prayer was my place of shame, and I struggled with the guilt of hating prayer and not doing it well, or sometimes, even at all.
For an extrovert addicted to people, prayer seemed like the worst kind of torture...
This past weekend at Real Life | LA, we celebrated our third communion service as a new baby church. We’ve grown a lot over the past eight weeks of our church’s existence. God is at work in a powerful way, and we’ve witnessed quite a few miracles, healings, and magnificent expressions of God’s providence and grace. We come to Real Life from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. But if you’re like me, you may find it all a little overwhelming! Sometimes I even wonder, "is this new church really happening?!" I had the joyous privilege of presiding over communion last Sunday, and was struck by the emotion of the event. As I looked across the congregation, it hit me. As we gather...
Just over two weeks ago, I sat with a group of mostly new faces on a Tuesday night attending my first bible study outside of a small group. It is the first bible study for Real Life. I had missed the first of a 7 week study on Acts. I remember thinking, “It has been quite some time since my wife and I have even belonged to a small group.”My excitement about experiencing the planting of a church compelled me to join this study to learn about the beginnings of the church.
It's a pretty radical thing when you stop talking about reading the Bible and learning the Bible and start talking about doing the Bible.
Pastor Francis Chan asks what it would be like if when he told his daughter to go clean her room, she treated it the way Christians treat Jesus' commands. Can you imagine her coming back to her father and saying to him, "You remember what you told me to do? I memorized it. I can even say it in Greek." But although she has memorized it...
"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." ~Romans 12:15
I still vividly remember the day I discovered I was miscarrying our first child. Although I was fortunate enough to conceive again within a year, and hold that healthy baby safely delivered in my arms, the unspeakable joy of a dream fulfilled did not cancel out the grief of our prior loss. For years afterwards...
