Easter is a big service for almost every church. But the method behind the madness is backwards.

The Current Methodology:

1.Invite people to church, hear the sermon

2.Then people come to life group

3.Then people come over for dinner

4.Then people accept Christ

The New Suggested Methodology:

1.Invite people over for dinner

2.Then invite people to life group

3.Then invite people to church, hear the sermon

4.Then people accept Christ

But Why Change It?

1.Same mission, but our changing culture requires a different model (and I don’t mean worship styles).

2.“Doing life” together requires doing life, not fabricating an environment (as it attempted in life groups).

3.It places the responsibility back on the individual, instead of the institutional church.

Please Understand…

•    I’m offering this as an alternative; something that might work.

•    I’m trying to add to the conversation about how to reach people for Christ.

•    I don’t think it needs to be an “all or nothing” type of thinking. That’s both dangerous and foolish.

Question: What’s your opinion? Have you seen anything different?

Resources

•    A special thanks to my producer, Justin Medley

•    Invite me to speak at your next event!

Photo Credit: Julie Falk

In fact, it was just a few weeks ago that I did hit a wall. My passion for podcasting was running low, my patience wasn’t where it needed to be with my family, and I was coming close to simply burning out.

That’s what led me to create what I call an Annual Plan.

I’ve created a free excel spreadsheet for you to download. It’s already pre-populated with my own calendar, so you can edit the items and change the colors as needed.

It’s divided into quarters:

I list the non-negotiables first. These are items that I either have little control over, or am unwilling to change. Here are my personal ones:

After you’ve entered your non-negotiables, list your negotiable items. These are things like hobbies and personal projects:

You can download the spreadsheet here for free. If you’ve found it useful, feel free to share it with your friends.

In this episode, I share 3 lessons I learned from organic, fair trade, french press coffee (say that 3 times fast)!

This leaves you with the best cup of coffee ever...I promise.

Hopefully, you can listen to this episode while you enjoy a hot cup of coffee.  If not, you'll probably want one afterwards :)

I vividly remember when Loretta called me to tell me she was pregnant

Like any soon-to-be father, I was excited, nervous, and blown away at the same time.

I think the first thing I said was, "Well...congratulations?"

Six years and 2 more beautiful children later, I'm still well aware of the challenge of being a father.  And so comes my confession...

That my initial reactions weren't what I thought they were "supposed to be."

That fatherhood has been an endless journey of discovery, both about my children and myself.

And that God's grace is all the more evident as I navigate the waters of fatherhood.

Question: How have you overcome your fears and insecurities as a father or a mother?

Leave your answer in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

My producer: Justin Medley

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It's the one thing that doesn't have a return on investment, but without it, you'll be more than just "poor."

Accountants help us with taxes; show us where to spend (or save) our money; and a slew of other things.  But what they don't do is advise us on how to invest in our relationships. 

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Of course, that's not their specialty...how do you measure a return on investment from a relationship? (If that's how you measure your relationships, you need to rethink your "relationships").

In this episode, I share how you can invest in your relationships:

•    For less than $25 per month (because everything costs something)

•    By creating an environment that fosters relationships

•    By intentionally spending your time (just we spend our money)

Question: How do you invest in your relationships?

Episode Resources:

•    A big thanks to my producer, Justin Medley.  We're going to be collaborating on more projects in the next few months.  Check out what he does!

•    Don't be left in the dark about what I'm reading every month.  Click here to join the Live Life Better Book Club!

I've asked myself that question multiples times over the years, until I realized it's not hard to find God's will; we just make it complicated.

In this episode, I share how we've complicated the "process" of finding God's will.  We desperately open the Bible, looking for something to tell us what career path to choose, whom to marry, or a gamut of other important decisions. But in reality, we know that the Bible doesn't address where we should go to college, what job to take, or whether or not to buy that house.

The popular Christian band Sidewalk Prophets has a song about the angst they feel with their inability to find God's will!

What a frustrating way to live the Christian life; stumbling blindly through life with no security in God's will!

Instead, it tells us to do everything for the glory of God. (See Colossians 3:23)

That's the bar against which we measure our decisions.

The opportunity for vertical, socioeconomic movement here in the United States and most of the western nations was unheard of when Jesus walked the Earth. In fact, its unheard of in many areas of the world still today.

Why did Jesus train to become a carpenter? Because his father was a carpenter. In those days, you followed in the footsteps of your father. There was no discussion of, "I think I'd like to be a doctor." What your father did for a living determined what you did for a living.

Maybe God isn't concerned specifically with what we do with our lives (vocationally, etc). What if He's more concerned in seeing that what we are doing brings Him glory?

Question:  What's your take on that? Does God have a specific occupation/school/spouse for you? Or does he give us the freedom to choose, with bringing him glory being the only qualifier?

Listener Survey Results: Thank you to everyone who participated in the listener survey!  Find out more detail, and what it means for you here.

Episode Resources:

I was reading the book "The Parent You Want To Be" and it made me stop and think:

Am I really making time for what's important to me?  Even then, how can I make the time?

In this episode, I share 5 ways to slow down your busy life.  Some of them are added activities, and others are "subtracted" activities.  But either way, one of them is sure to get you started on slowing down your life to let you focus on your priorities.

1.Make homemade bread from scratch.  We did it, and here's it how it turned out.

2.If you commute, turn off the radio.  Listen to the silence.

3.Play a board game or a card game.

4.Go on a walk.

While these activities may seem unrelated at first glance, they all have one common factor: prolonged focus on one activity, instead of the usual back-and-forth we do with our attention.

Question: What tips do you have for slowing down your life?  Leave your comment in the comments section below.

In this week's episode, I talk about a completely different set of reasons that our marriage works.  If you enjoyed last week's episode, you'll love this one!

Question: What things do you and your spouse do to stay married?

Try this:  Grab a piece of paper and sit down with your spouse.  Make your own separate lists of ten reasons why you're still married.  Then share it with each other (on a date, or over coffee). 

Of course, I probably wasn't the only person taking Elementary Hebrew who kept telling themselves they would fail the class (even though that's what it felt like). Naturally, I spent plenty of time feeling sorry for myself, and after I had just finished a pity-party, my mom just said three words:

The shift was immediate in my mind.  If I wasn't going to fail the class, then the only other option was to pass the class...and to start telling myself that I will.

The story we tell ourselves don't determine what happens in life, but it definitely impacts the trajectory.

Question: What story are you telling yourself, and how does that impact your outlook on life?