All my life I have been somewhat of an introverted person but God has helped me grow into being more intentional about interacting and showing kindness to others, even to strangers. I read a devotion a while back that has stayed with me. It goes something like this: Think back to a time when someone…

I have recently begun working on my Doctorate of Ministry in Disciple-Making, and one of the first things I have been learning is that the call to ministry is a dangerous calling. It is dangerous because we are not only fighting the spiritual battle against sin around us (in the culture, in the lives of…

Heart of the Staff, Bro Jim September 2023 In the rotations of the Heart of the Staff, my last post was in March 2023.  I continue with The Home – Is it Made, Purchased, or Given, specifically, The Home – Sealed in Marriage. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,…

It was 45 years ago, at the age of 16, when the Lord tugged my heart to surrender my life to full-time ministry as a pastor. I deeply loved the Lord, had committed my life to following Jesus, and read my Bible daily. During my freshman year of college, a guest lecturer in Discipleship class…

In a little less than two months, my family and I are doing something we’ve never had the opportunity to do. We will take a four week sabbatical from September 13 – October 10. During this time I will have the opportunity to participate in ministry in different contexts, worship with my family in different…

When you read the stories of the “giants” of the Bible like Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, or Paul, we see recorded for all of time the details of some amazing victories and some massive failures.  While I wouldn’t want my mistakes and downright blatant sins discussed in Bible study groups across the world, I am…

When I write for the heart of the staff, I want it to be personal, from the heart, as the title states (‘my’ heart) . All of us have experienced this but when you see someone that you know or just met you generally ask, “How are you?” The most popular answer, it seems, is…

Heart of the Staff April, 2023 I recently went to a missions conference that challenged my perspective of missions, and in a broader way our church’s perspective of missions. When we think about missions, one of the first things that comes to mind is the great commission given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20.…

I am referring to the last post on September 1, 2022, regarding The Home – Is it Made, Purchased, or Given.  The portion of this series was comparing Jacob’s home life as a picture of Christ’s church.  We pick back up with the second mistake Samson made was to go to the Harlot in Gaza. …