Stay connected with Jesus during this intense ministry season, and help your team do the same using this Christmas prayer experience.

If you don’t follow me on facebook or instagram, you probably feel I went MIA for almost a year now. I feel I owe you a report on what happened to me late 2020 through 2021, what I learned from it, and what comes next.

So here goes.

Recently, my daughter Carly and I climbed Castle Rock above Big Bear Lake California. As we hiked, bouldered and climbed, 5 discoveries came to me for those who connect people in local churches. Click here to look at our photo journal to see what I learned.

Have you ever wondered where you are in your spiritual journey, or why you went through a difficult time and wondered when it would end? I think that guests who have found their way to our churches are wrestling with those same questions as well. In this conversation with Sharon Hughes, I share an answer to these questions that has served me and the guests we connect with well.

Last May, many of you know I experienced the trip of a lifetime-taking my wife to one of my favorite places on the planet: Italy. The trip ended in Venice, a location I had not been to yet. What I experienced there has left a mark on me. Literally, a Saint Mark on me. Brace yourself for some cool history. Here we go…

Ideas, tips and encouragement on this reality of multisite ministry is what this latest episode of our All About Multisite podcast is about. This one focuses on lack of growth and what can actually reverse it.

But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. -Psalm 3:3

I am familiar with this verse and have sung it in church and at camp growing up. I have always thought when it says that God is the "lifter of my head" that it was saying God is the lifter if my mood, or that he lifts me out of discouragement. He certainly does that, but recently I found that King David was probably saying something different.

I used to believe that I needed to "sell" church to new people.

I believed that I needed to continually speak of the advantages of being part of a church, the benefits of spiritual community, a connection to their ultimate purpose, and more. Though true, I think focusing so much on these advantages distorted my thinking about our guests.

I know believe almost the opposite...