A few weeks ago, I saw the movie, Operation Finale. It tells the story of a secret Israeli operation to infiltrate Argentina and capture Adolf Eichmann, a former Nazi SS officer, credited for his influential role in planning and directing the Final Solution, the German execution of more than six million Jews. After the war,...

Central to the plot of Ayn Rand’s classic 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, is the repeatedly posed question, “Who is John Galt?” The novel is about an increasingly tyrannical government undermined by a mysterious individual who workes to sabotage the bureaucracy by helping entrepreneurs and business owners vanish from the workforce; Galt covertly subverts the system...

It’s hard to overestimate the impact Eugene Peterson has had on me as a pastor and as a writer. This video is a conversation with Peterson and Dean Nelson at the Point Loma Nazarene University’s Writer’s Symposium by the Sea in 2007. More than writing, Peterson offers deep wisdom into the lifestyle of the pastor...

John Piper discusses how to sense if you are being called to write. If you have ever thought God was calling you to write, Piper offers sound advice on evaluating that call. He describes the levels of awareness that helps us solidify and build confidence in our writing and call. Listen on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RLTZ9RLGZU

I’ve recently been working through Craig Keener’s 4-part commentary on the Book of Acts. I’ll be preaching through the Book of Acts this summer and fall. Keener’s book is remarkable and massive. I once heard a scholar suggest that it will be the most important work on Acts for at least the next 100 years....

There is a round rock that sits on my desk between my screen and the keyboard. Honestly, it’s a little strange because it could easily be mistaken for a small potato. But it’s a rock. A good friend brought it back from a service trip to Iraq. He was part of a team taking food...

Below is a 4-part video series of Walter Brueggemann interviewing author and ordained minister, Frederick Buechner. The interview covers a wide range of topics from Buechner’s seminary experience to the importance of the pastor’s voice. “With a religious book it is less what we see in it than what we see through it that matters.” — Frederick...

This summer will be our fifth anniversary of planting Bent Oak Church. For the entire five years, I have been a bi-vocational pastor. It might be more accurate to say, for most of it, I’ve been a volunteer. A year ago the church began to pay me for one day a week. Of course, Sundays...