Here’s an inspiring story from Pastor James Emory White: Just a few weeks ago, on a Thursday afternoon, a young woman came by the office to give me something. She was going to put it in the offering plate, but decided to just hand it to me. I was in a meeting, so she left [...]
Posts Tagged ‘love’
Why We Do What We Do
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, Leadership, love, Purpose, Relevant Ministry on October 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A Better Date
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Relevant Ministry, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, Connecting, legitimacy, love, Purpose, Valuable life goal on August 6, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Friday is typically date night for me and my wife. But after another intense week it’s painfully difficult to slow down and simply be present. Sadly, I can be a poor date. Could this be how Christ and our pastor feel about us on Sundays? With hectic schedules, 100 channels, 24-hour news, Facebook, Twitter, and [...]
Father’s Day Challenge
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Evolving Culture, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Leadership, love, Purpose, Valuable life goal on June 8, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Media consultant Phil Cooke reports that the research has been done and the verdict is in (though we hardly needed it to tell us): We are hopelessly addicted to our digital devices. So much so, in fact, that some psychologists are pushing to have “Internet Addiction” broadly classified as a clinical disorder. Take a look [...]
Taking Risks
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, Connecting, connection, Consumerism, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, Leadership, love, missional, Purpose, Relevant Ministry, Valuable life goal on May 11, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Ten months ago, we met our 12-year-old daughter in China. We were scared and overwhelmed but driven by the vision that we were being called to stretch beyond our own comfort. Francis Chan’s words were ringing in our ears: God hasn’t called us to comfort. We’re called to take big risks so that if He [...]
A Careful Man
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Authentic, Bahler Family Doing Life, clarity, communication, Empowering Leadership, Hope, Leadership, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal, vision on March 18, 2011 | 17 Comments »
My dad passed away last night. He suffered from Alzheimer’s and deteriorated rapidly over the past few weeks. It was a blessing to have my mom and all eight of us kids around his bed as his breathing grew slower and slower. It was a special time as we told stories and sang old hymns [...]
Divorcing Facebook
Posted in Evolving Culture, tagged communication, Connecting, Evolving Culture, love, trust on February 20, 2011 | 23 Comments »
The Leadership journal recently reported that Rev. Cedric Miller of Living Word Christian Fellowship Church in New Jersey has banned Facebook. He has ordered about 50 married church staffers to delete their accounts or resign. And he has called on his 1,100-member congregation to do the same. The problem isn’t lost productivity while checking out [...]
I Have Called You Friends
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged love on December 28, 2010 | 5 Comments »
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is John 15: 12. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14. You are my friends if you do what I command. 15. I no [...]
Rehearsing is for Cowards
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged building momentum, connection, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal on September 16, 2010 | 2 Comments »
…That’s what Seth Godin says. He challenges us to be explorers. In his words, A well-rehearsed performance will go without a hitch. But an explorer seeks the hitches, because hitches are the fissures and chasms that help us leap forward. Many of us were taught to pursue a well-rehearsed life. To do that requires focus, [...]
Never Give Up
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, tagged building momentum, Empowering Leadership, Faith, Hope, Leadership, love, trust, vision on August 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
We can commit to years of preparation for a great cause or challenge. Even so, things beyond our control can cause deep disappointment. Those are moments of great truth. Those are moments that define us. 400 meter British Olympian Derek Redmond had a defining moment on the back stretch of the 1992 Olympics. Despite 13 [...]
Danger Love
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, Empowering Leadership, Relevant Ministry, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, Connecting, connection, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, legitimacy, love, missional, Missional Ministry, trust on July 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Li Mei is a 16-year-old orphan here in Guangzhou that nobody ever came for. She’s now too old to be adopted and is no longer eligible for government support. An Indiana couple we’ve gotten to know met her on one of their previous adoption trips and have introduced her to an American missionary here. The [...]
The Most Important Person
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, communication, Connecting, Consumerism, Faith, Hope, Leadership, legitimacy, love, Purpose, trust, Valuable life goal, vision on July 16, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Pastor and sociologist Tony Campolo explains the concept of “The Looking Glass Self” like this: We see ourselves as we believe the most important person in our life sees us. Tony tells us that if we make Christ the most important person in our life and recognize that he loved us enough to die a [...]
Gotcha!
Posted in Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged Authentic, Bahler Family Doing Life, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, legitimacy, love, Purpose, Valuable life goal on June 18, 2010 | 10 Comments »
We found out yesterday that our “Gotcha Date” is July 12th. That’s the date we actually pick up our new 12-year-old daughter in China. “But why the term Gotcha?” I asked Sara Lang at Madison Adoption. Sara explained that at age 14 the Chinese government considers orphans adults, which terminates their availability for adoption as [...]
Trusting He’ll Come Through
Posted in Bahler Family Doing Life, tagged Bahler Family Doing Life, love, Missional Ministry, vision on May 2, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Last Friday my wife and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary. Well, we didn’t really celebrate it. In fact, I had forgotten it until my sister emailed with congratulations. I quickly called Annette and in my sweetest voice crooned, “Happy anniversary baby.” She had forgotten too. I expected life to be different at 52. I [...]
Safe Can be Dangerous
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged alignment, building momentum, community, community needs, Connecting, connection, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Hope, Leadership, love, mega church, ministry, Purpose, Relevant Ministry, third place, vision on February 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I grew up in a small Indiana town of 1,200 people. It was so safe that we didn’t own a key to the house, didn’t take the keys from the car, and knew most families two to three generations back. But what often evolves within safe circles is low trust for ideas outside it. That’s [...]
Who Will Save Us?
Posted in Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Relevant Ministry, tagged building momentum, clarity, Consumerism, Empowering Leadership, Evolving Culture, Faith, Hope, Leadership, legitimacy, love, missional, Missional Ministry, Relevant Ministry, vision on February 3, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Who will save the church? That depends on what you mean by ‘save.’ If you mean “what will keep things just as they are?” then the answer is nobody will. It’s over. And if you mean “who will maintain that handy place where we get encouraged on weekends, have our weddings and funerals, hang with [...]
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