Seventy-eight years ago on April 9, 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis at the age of 44, but his life and writings continue to challenge Christians everywhere.

His "experiment" in training church leaders for the German Confessing Church at Finkenwalde intrigues me, and his book The Cost of Discipleship challenges me. Running a farm dedicated to discipleship, hospitality and healing, I personally have much to glean from him, but I think you will find that we all do!

Dr. Stephen Gibson is the President of Evangelistic Faith Missions, Holiness Pilgrim Missions, and on the Board of Shepherd's Global Classroom. He was my first professor at Union Bible College and has been a long time friend and ministry partner.

This episode was recorded while visiting him at his home in Southern Indiana and includes some of his story on the winding road of missions he has travelled as well as the genesis of Shepherd's Global classroom, training materials that are making it possible to provide local theological education to thousands of pastors and church leaders among the global poor.

I enjoyed catching up with my friend and coworker, Keith Schaper this past week for a conversation about life, transition, and his work now in the area of donor relations at Evangelistic Faith Missions. I am thankful for the training that I received from my friend, Zach Clark at Leadership and Development Coaching.

While many leaders feel called to lead, they don't fully understand that part of leading is stewarding the relationships with the people who are giving to make that work possible. Why do people give, and why do they keep giving? We talk about that and much more in this episode.

A discussion about the church's role in charity and helping people to help themselves. How can we help in a way that is truly helpful? How do we help without undermining personal responsibility? How far should we go? How do we keep the safety net from becoming a hammock? How do we preserve the relationship while having hard conversations?

What does it mean for us to be the church, and what is God calling us to as His people to be? Is it enough to just "have church," or is God calling us to more?

Rebecca, our second daughter, turned 20 this past week. It got me to thinking about the changing seasons of parenting. My encouragement and admonition to young parents is, "Keep your eye on the ball! You have a narrow window of opportunity."

Just sharing from my experiences these past few days, including my time at Asbury University.

What kind of a person are you becoming? The battle is won or lost in the day to day choices. Every choice is a vote for who you want to become.

Sit down and write out 50 things that you really desire. As we delight ourselves in God, He promises to give us the desires of our heart. Why? Because the things that we want as we delight in Him, are the things that He wants for us.

George Muller wrote in his autobiography, "The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is... to make my soul happy in the Lord."