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God has interwoven my career pathway like the laces in a pair of shoes, crisscrossing them back and forth. I've gone from local church ministry to overseas service, back to local church ministry in cross-cultural settings in the U.S., then back overseas, and now back to local church ministry. After…

There is no time in the Christian calendar when we are more focused on giving than this time of year. Advent and the Christmas season that follows are filled with messages about giving, even among those outside of the Church.  Indeed, the gifts we give to others are in celebration of the great…

Holy Week was filled with holy moments as, for four days, I visited "those who were sick and in prison." My 90-year-old mother lives in an Alzheimer's unit. The staff must lock the doors to keep the patients from wandering. To enter, you must press a big red button on the outside wall. To leave,…

The life of our seven-year-old daughter Beth hung in delicate balance on that early March morning. My wife, Kathy, and I with our children, Beth and David, had been on a trip from our home in Overland Park, Kansas, to Oklahoma when a car slid across the ice and snow into the path of our '73…

Connecting with your community through volunteer work can create numerous stages for showing God's goodness. When I was a child, I remember hearing quartets sing, "I want my life to tell for Jesus; that everywhere I go, men may His goodness know . . ." Where do I go that His goodness will…

Co-pastoring is not as unusual as it used to be. That isn't to say that I don't get questions when I mention the way Dustin and I work together in the church. I do. The main question, from district superintendents to strangers we meet at Starbucks, is 'How does that work exactly?' It works…

I really goofed up a sermon once. (Maybe more than once, but this particular incident stands out in my memory.) In a seminary class, I preached a prepared sermon that came straight from my heart for the assigned text, Mark 10:13-16, on Jesus blessing the little children. I spoke at length…

In each issue, a forum of pastors, laity, theologians, and church leaders respond to your questions on subjects such as doctrine, theology, Christian living, and the church. Send your questions to Holiness Today, Church of the Nazarene Global Ministry Center, 17001 Prairie Star Parkway, Lenexa, KS…

Have you ever been caught off guard in life? The first words out of your mouth in such times may have been, "Where in the world did that come from?" Most of us have been in such places. As I observe the experiences of good people going through challenging times, these thoughts arise in my mind…

A common way that non-religious or even newly converted people talk about salvation involves the phrase “finding God.” It is not a bad sentiment. It expresses the fact that we are all on a journey of discovery in our lives, and we search until those needs are satisfied. As Christians, we recognize…