Temporary and portable walls…I believe they could be one of the greatest problems in the church.  Not so much the physical ones, though I can’t seem to get those to work very well either.  I am referring to the spiritual temporary and portable walls we use so often.  We love the privacy they give us when we are struggling spiritually and we are even more thrilled with them when we can move them out of the way for all to see our moment of great success.  This faith façade we erect with our brothers and sisters in Christ is keeping us in the dry wastelands of spiritual drought.   What could your life look......

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Lord Jesus… I choose now to make it a priority to attend my church’s worship service. I won’t allow any event, activity, or person to become more important than corporate worship, I will do everything in my power to reserve this day for you, Lord.   I will commit to prepare for corporate worship the day before. Lord you deserve more than my last minute scrambling. I will get to bed on time so that I am rested and ready for worship. I will wake up early so that I have more than enough time to get ready for worship. Before I leave the house for church, I will make the time to......

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I woke up to a jostling of the bed.  As I opened my eyes, I saw my 5 year old daughter standing over me holding a tray, my wife beside her.   “Happy Father’s Day!” my daughter Kayden shouted in her high pitched squeaky voice.  I was greeted with breakfast in bed, Father’s Day cards, and a wrapped gift.   After I opened the gifts on the tray, Kayden said, “Dad I got you another gift all by myself.”  I looked to my wife Carrie. She looked as surprised as I was.   “You did? What is it?” I asked.   Kayden pulled her hand from behind her back, extended it toward me,......

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It was the first Sunday at our new church and as I made my way to the front row, I met Joe.  While I observed right away that Joe had been born with Downs Syndrome, I had no idea at the time how meaningful Joe would become to me. Joe sat right next to me on the front row.  Our first conversation was very short.  It went like this: “Hi my name is Joe, what’s your name?” “Hi Joe, I’m Brady.” “Are you my new pastor?” “Yes I am, it’s good to meet you, Joe…” But before I could finish my sentence Joe embraced me in a hug.  That was the first of many......

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I was greeted this morning as I sifted through my inbox with an email titled “We can HELP your Church’s brand” sent from a church branding company. I had not solicited help form this company and I was about to move the email to the trash folder when I paused and was captivated by the following thoughts… What is the brand of the church? Not just my local church but the Church of Jesus Christ. Is there a difference between the brand of the broader Church of Jesus Christ and my local church? Have we in western culture elevated our local church brands above the core brand of Christianity? My thoughts were not......

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