Dear praying friends,We had a great visit in Watertown, SD last weekend! One of the joys of being on home assignment is the opportunity to reconnect with people who have been praying for you for years (and years). Watertown is special for a variety o...

Dear praying friends,Oh. my. goodness. Since the last email I sent, our daughter has moved. That was planned. When we got together with Jo last week, it finally clicked for me that they were renting a U-Haul and towing their car to Nashville. Jo...

Dear praying friends,I hope your Easter was meaningful and that you had time to reflect on the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior. We spent time remembering these things, visit family, see old friends, and have family visit us. It was gr...

Hi praying friends,Thank you very much to those of you who wrote last week with what you were hearing from God - both in your own life and ministry and regarding our rental situation. We spent time as staff last week praying and listening to God, re...

Dear praying friends,Thanks for your ongoing prayers for us. This week new interns have landed in Berlin!One of the challenges in being on home ministry assignment is staying engaged with some of these exciting parts of the life of an Envision site f...

Justin Bariso recently wrote an article entitled “Why Brilliant Minds Embrace the Rule of Awkward Silence”.  Bariso often writes on the theme of EQ and explains the rule this way: “The rule is simple: When faced with a challenging question, instead o...

One of the things I value highly in leadership is transparency. I love the dictionary.com definition of the figurative meaning of transparency: a state in which things are free from any attempt to hide something. Living in a state or condition where...

Sometime this last week the Lobster from the Little Mermaid started saying “First you have to set the mood” in my head.  It was probably a direct result of spending a week with 8-10 year old kids at a camp I co-led.  But this advice from Sebastian (t...

I don’t do vacation well.  This is unfortunate, because I want to do vacation well.  It would be great to be one of those guys sitting on the beach with a book (or Kindle) in hand.  I love going to a museum and spending hours surrounded by beauty.  S...

My morning ritual starts with a bowl of Musli, a cup of coffee, and bro.  wsing several news sites.  This morning I came across this story:  Missing treasure hunter’s remains found in New Mexico.  In short, an author and art dealer named Forrest Fenn...

No matter how well you plan, your plans are often dependent on other people following through on their commitments.  I’m currently dealing with the aftermath of a busy week, complicated by people missing deadlines.  We took on an extra project that w...

I remember the first time I read through Aesop’s Fables. The talking animals and the simple life lessons fascinated me. As an adult, I continue to enjoy many of these short little stories with a meaning and a moral.  Many of the lessons are more poig...

Compassion is, according to Miriam Webster “a feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in trouble, etc.”. Cowardice is “fear that makes you unable to do what is right or expected : lack of courage.” The words are pretty different, but...

Mistakes Happen! Most leaders discover fairly early that mistakes happen. I remember my first “major” mistake as a youth pastor.  It was not really that big of a mistake.  Someone had asked me shortly before the service started if I would announce so...

Last week about arrogance versus confidence.  After having been accused of being arrogant, I had to start to to develop a leadership approach that I felt was more in line with how I wanted to lead and have my leadership perceived.  I began reading bo...