Worn out by doing ministry alone? Want your ministry with young adults to last? How do you find and empower good volunteers? How do you dive beyond the ‘fun event’ into true substance in your teaching? Read on as we discuss some of the difficulties and challenges facing these tasks. Why do so many churches have difficulty securing a strong volunteer base? Recruiting, training and maintaining good volunteers is a struggle any church will always deal with. That’s because it is something that has to be attended to … [Read more...]

Are you dreaming of the day when you will finally hold in your hand the keys to your very own home? Homeownership is a huge, sometimes scary, step in life. The list of details to consider is endless: What’s a fair price? Can you trust the inspection? Will the area feel like home? Threads staffers have come up with a list of 12 things you absolutely must consider before you drop such a huge chunk of change on a home that you very well could be paying on for the next thirty years. Buy a hose. There’s a ton of stuff that … [Read more...]

The last place you would expect to see a clear picture of salvation is in a criminal courtroom. You hear the clinking of shackles and handcuffs as prisoners shuffle in and out. You hear sobs and pleas of those who have broken the law. You sit by the families of victims and you sense their anguish and desire for justice. The room is filled with a sense of hopelessness. Yet, while standing in support of a friend earlier this week, I saw one of the clearest pictures God has ever shown me of our salvation in Jesus Christ. I made it to … [Read more...]

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Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Chase the Goose, which is now available for purchase from the Threads store. Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect. Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit: An Geadh-Glas, or “the Wild Goose.” The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger and an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I can’t think … [Read more...]

I was going through some old documents on my computer earlier today and stumbled across a document titled, “B-HAGS”. Consequently, I did not coin the term “B-HAGS”, and honestly cannot remember who did, but “B-HAGS” stands for “Big Hairy Audacious Goals”. The specific document that I found was about four years old and was developed by myself and my program staff while I was working with Fuge Student Camps. We had sat down one night prior to our Bible study leaders and campers arriving … [Read more...]

I sat down on my bed the other day to have my “quiet time” with God. Truthfully, it had been more than a week since I had really given Him any of my attention whatsoever, and I felt like it was time I connect with Him on some level. So, Bible in hand, I closed my eyes and started to pray. “Dear God, I come to You now …” Suddenly, I felt a little red flag go up in my heart, and I figured I must have said something wrong, so I started over. “Dear Lord, I pray that You would come to me now … [Read more...]

Our Easter egg hunt has turned out to be something of a wild goose chase. If you’d like to win a trip to D.C., including lunch with Mark Batterson, this is a game you should seriously get in on. Update: The second clue has been released. … [Read more...]

Have you ever felt slightly beat up after reading something in God’s Word? Sometimes when I feel like I’ve been an A+ Christian, I read something that exposes the ungodly things in me that I’ve shoved way down out of sight. And it hurts. It hurts my pride knowing that I’m still struggling. This passage is one of those: Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. … [Read more...]

A while back, I got an unexpected long distance phone call. I was surprised to hear the voice of my homeless friend Shirlene on the other end. After exchanging delighted greetings, Shirlene told me that she and Sam, another homeless friend, finally made it to the beach. They’d saved every penny for a month to buy one-way Greyhound tickets to Tampa. Some friends and I met Sam and Shirlene one humid Sunday afternoon at our downtown riverfront park. We packed brown bag lunches and a cooler full of popsicles and set out to … [Read more...]