Dr. Vivek Murthy says there is an urgent health crisis in America, the most under appreciated healthy crisis in many years, he says.

Some people love talking about end times; others love talking about social justice. My brothers wonders why those are rarely the same people!

We put so much stock in fame and power; we have become convinced that even discipleship is best done loudly, but what if this also is wrong.

If Discipleship is best done faster why is God always slowing the really important missions down?

What do we mean by looking to "smaller" as a discipleship strategy?

Both in the churches and out of it we are primed to see success as bigger, faster, louder. Unfortunately in the church this means we've decided that discipleship is best assessed and accomplished in the same bigger, faster, louder ways. But what if this is not inherently true. What if it's just what we've adopted from the culture around us?

Could the American Church possibly go forward with a different approach? Would it be helpful to do so?

For the next few weeks we'll be exploring the radical ida of a discipleship which is smaller, slower and softer.

We're visited by the Apostle abnormally born.

Why and how is Hope an eternal treasure?

So much of our life is driven by our desire to belong, to find a community where we know we are accepted as we are, but which also gives us room tog row and change. Another truly precious and beautiful treasure found in Christ.

We too often think of rejoicing in trials as an extra burden, a spiritual duty which just makes trials even harder as we pretend to be happy about things that are painful.  But when we think this way we've really missed the boat.  The fact that we can rejoice in trials is a great gift, a truly precious treasure which is just not available to those without the Christian Worldview.  Although scripture does encourage us to rejoice in trials, it does so from the standpoint of celebrating the reasons why this is even possible, not from the standpoint of chastising us for feeling pain in painful times.