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John, who organizes church socials, sees people come and go while the depth of relationships stays shallow.  Judy can’t seem to find people to hang out with at all.  Mike can’t seem to get past the cultural differences that he’s facing with the people around him. 

Everyone I know is looking to belong and yet so few people have a solid community of friends.  You would think that with everyone wanting it, more of us would have it!  How have we as a generation lost all ability to form healthy relationships with the people around us?  Is it our amazing independence?  Do we all have these…

As I was thinking about dreaming great dreams, a friend of mine asked what the difference was between health and wealth and great dreams.  I thought that was truly a great question.  While I believe on an emotional level the difference is clear, on a logical level they are indeed similar.  They both ask God with expectation, and wait for God to deliver.  Indeed, there have been a number of people I have counselled, who could not tell the difference between great dreams and a warped gospel.  This led to them being ever disappointed by God not pulling through when they were…

In my time with God I’ve been praying through Good to Great by Chip Ingram.  This isn’t the classic by Jim Collins, but a sort of Christian version of the same thing.  On a chapter I read recently Chip Ingram talks about having God sized dreams, not little me sized dreams, but the big ones.  The ones I dare not admit because they sound audacious and arrogant.  Why wouldn’t God be able to do those?

Well, he can!  I imagine being able to grow a ministry that is consumed with the Glory of God!  Where every believer is unconcerned about their own…

Portable applications have been interesting me for a while.  Essentially, you can put them on your USB flash drive and carry them wherever you go, with all your settings, files, and preferences.  If they’re well written they also won’t leave any traces on the host computer, nor will they require admin privileges.

Along with these portable applications, there have been a few application managers that give you a windows like interface for interacting with the applications.  The two major commercial ones are PowerToGo (From Ceedo through Lexar) and U3, which come with certain USB drives.  There is also a free version, which…

Black Flight is changing the way our cities look!
This has serious implications for those of us with Here’s Life Inner City, or for that matter, any inner city organization. I would hope that we take notice, because not only will it affect who we do ministry with, but also where we do it. If we stay in the cities, then we will be working with a largely upper middle class white post-modern. If we wish to remain working with the poor, we might find ourselves in the suburbs.

Another interesting speculation is that with some western rural towns having an…

Lately, it seems as if I’m on information overload and my brain needs to work double time to keep up. I find myself contemplating parapsychology and wondering if kick starting a lucid dream is biblical. When I go to the library and browse amongst the titles, I find that my minute has turned to 10 and my 10 to 30. If only I could process faster… Instead, I lay awake before I go to bed with my mind racing, wondering when it will all end so that I can simply go to sleep.

Is it good to be so mentally vibrant?…

There is so much wrong with my body!

It should be obvious, but thanks to my own sin, and perhaps that of Adam as well… I’m dying. I don’t like it, and I wish it would go away. But there’s no denying that my life is limited and death will claim me. Luckily I know I’m going to heaven!

God promises…

However, God points out that someday I will be like Christ! I will have a new body. One that is not all messed up. I don’t think it will be perfect in my way of thinking… Christ still had the…

These are the things that seem to work pretty well that I would suggest if you find yourself in my shoes.

1) A good Content Management System (CMS) can speed up your work greatly! I’ve written my own and used drupal extensively… I like both for different reasons, but if your looking for speed and robustness drupal is great!

2) Have the important content easily accessible on the front page. Either primary links or hot items. This is where people can get the meat of what your site is about. Everyone should be able to see the these and click…