Four Things I Learned From My Little Sister
As a kid, I hated it when my sister had her birthday. It meant nothing but girl parties, painted nails, princesses, and all of my little sister's friends that I thought were annoying. Now that we are all grown up, I don’t dread it anymore. Now I celebrate the sweet life of my sister who now has a daughter of her...
The Key to Maximizing Your Efficiency Daily
“Do the Hard Things First.” I recently heard this principle from Greg McKeown, but I am sure my parents taught it to me long ago. It was probably the reason my mom said to eat my vegetables first. Or it may be the reason my dad had me do the chores before playing on a Saturday. Doing the hardest things...
Unleash Your True Potential
I am a professional extrovert. It surprises most people who have seen me preach in front of large crowds that I am not energized by being with people. Crowds are intimidating to me. I am not the life of any party (though my wife wishes I would be). Molly, my wife, loves being with people. The more parties, the better...
Creating Your Perfect Preaching Space
"Let’s get rid of the pulpit,” were some of my first words when starting my first senior pastor role in 2009. I was preparing to preach every week, which was different than what I had done in the past. I knew I quickly had to find what was comfortable for me. Sunday comes with amazing regularity, so finding a setup...
Five or Less Sentence Email Replies
Email has a way of controlling our lives. Think about it, we can get in the rut of doing nothing but responding to hours of emails every day. As fast as I return one email, two to three (literally) come in to replace it before I push "send". A few years ago I came across a website calling for a disciplined...
How to Ask Questions Well!
We live in a world where we are in a perpetual state of reaction. We react to our circumstances whether it's in our job, our marriage, or even a friendship. But the simple truth is we need to react less and think more. Our words matter, even more then that our questions matter. Have you ever noticed that when you...
Our Father’s Love
As a kid, it was always easy to love my dad. I screamed at the sight of strangers, but when I was with my dad, all my fear went away. I always knew that my dad loved me. I knew that he would do anything for me, even if it meant to not give me what I wanted because...
A New Way to Think About Downtime
I don't rest well. I find a way to get busy doing something with every minute of my day. While I think it is good to be efficient and as productive as possible, we also need to make sure that we find ways to be refreshed. It is only fair that we live life to the fullest and give ourselves...
What it takes to Keep Falling in Love in Marriage
I have been formally counseling married people for over three years now, and the one thing I hear more than anything is, “We’ve fallen out of love.” Let me start by putting my opinion right up front: you cannot “fall out of love”. You can stop liking a person, but to fall out of love is a choice to neglect...
How To Prepare to Preach Expository Sermons for Maximum Impact
Preaching well is not something I simply strive to do, it is something I am called to do. When I sit to plan my preaching the weight of that calling can sometimes crush me underneath it. The effort of creating a sermon that allows the Holy Spirit to do great and unhindered work is a sweet but rigorous task. So...
Art and God: An interview with My Brother, Jake Weidmann
There are few people I am more proud of in my life than my brother, Jake. Take last night for example—Molly and I had a gentleman over for dinner. As soon as the plates were cleared and desert was arriving at the table, I grabbed my iPad to show off my brother's facebook page. His work is diverse, excellent and one...
Following the call of the Lord
I have something exciting to share! Two days ago I received a call from the Grace Chapel elders. They were all on speaker phone, calling me from an evening elder meeting. Brian Moe, the chairman of the board, spoke for them all and said, "We are calling to tell you that we have had a unanimous vote to invite...