In general, we have a good idea of what international missions is. It’s about following God’s call, it’s about a heart for the nations, it’s about a surrender and commitment. It’s an exciting, life-changing journey, hopefully for you and for the people you’ll be ...
It’s a rat race out there. Fast-paced, hectic, demanding. It strains us, it pulls at us, it takes from us. Life is moving all too fast. It wasn’t like that two weeks ago, though, at least for my family. We were in Africa, back where I grew up. It was slow-paced and highly relational. ...
If the Apostle Paul walked into Hope Church, would he be comfortable? This question is plaguing me. Badly. Because the answer tells us all we need to know. If it’s a no… well, we somehow aren’t living out normal biblical Christianity. Our church doesn’t reflect a New ...
[See part 1, part 2 and part 3 in this series of posts on Discipleship for more info.] What does success look like? It’s easy to get overwhelmed at the thought of diving into discipleship relationships, particularly if you struggle with inadequacy. It’s easy to ...
One of our favorite passages to quote and to celebrate at Hope Church is the Apostles' prayer in Acts 4:29-30, which Peter referenced in his blog post last week: "And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch ...
Acts chapters 6 & 7 are some of my favorite chapters in the whole book of Acts. Stephen is a man who I greatly desire to live like and resemble. The reason I want to live my life like Stephen lived his was because Stephen understood what the point and purpose of his life was: to bring glory to ...
“Because Jesus was extraordinary, I’m free to be ordinary.” We all want to be somebody. We all want to be known for something special. We want to be known as the athlete, the singer, the one who is really attractive, the one who has memorized tons of scripture, or the ...
A thirst for success haunts all of us. This is true because a longing for significance dominates our culture. We all are driven toward living lives that count. Many of us have lengthy track records that point toward attempts at worldly success. We’ve poured in time, resources, and ...
The kids and I have a game that we love to play. It’s called the “For God’s Glory” game. It’s not really a game, at its root, but they enjoy it like it’s a game. It goes something like this: Me: “Allison, why do we eat?” Allison: “For ...
A thirst for success seems to hound all of us. We all want our lives and efforts to count. We want to be deemed successful, for success gives us worth. The worth of a church is viewed in the same light. It’s all found in the success that a church attains, presuming that that success will be ...
