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Not too long ago, a good friend and fellow follower of Jesus, Kim Pinnell, pointed out a mistake in an Unconventional post. He did it in an email rather than hold me up to public ridicule, which I appreciated, and he copied and pasted the error in the email—no way to avoid what I rather would not face. He nailed me. I had…
Read MoreNot long ago, a high school friend, Barbara Ocon Hulziger, posted about her start in ballroom dancing, over twenty years earlier. I asked her if I could share this, she agreed and sent a picture of her and Anthony. Here’s Barbara’s story!
“In August 2002 my friend literally dragged me to a ballroom studio for ‘just one visit.’ Totally competent and confident in my professional life, I was mortified by my clumsiness…
Read More“A perfect God has chosen to use imperfect churches to bring imperfect people to the perfect God.” So, how do we handle imperfect churches? And trust me, all are imperfect. I’ve been on staff at 5 churches, one that I planted, and none of them were all I yearned for. So let’s look at two questions: when might it be time to consider leaving a church, and how should we do it?
Read MoreGot up this Sunday AM, fried an egg, grabbed my coffee and opened up the AP news on my laptop, to find a random attack at a Detroit area splash pool. A 42 year old man randomly walked up, fired at least 28 rounds, wounding nine with one in critical condition. He calmly left for home, where police soon found him—killed by his own hand.Since 2001, terrorism and random shootings, international and domestic. seem to fill our news. We call that evil, as we should. Yet…
Read MoreWe live in a world of extremes, especially in our behaviors, our values. But what if we looked deeper at balancing virtues and decreasing extremes? The new Unconventional suggests a tool we can all use.
Read More“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” Mostly true, isn’t it? Our default setting for life seems to be a relentless pursuit of keeping it, even if we know where we’re going. Why is that? I suspect God holds the responsibility, he placed “eternity in our hearts.” But we can easily get confused about that concept…
Read MoreMick and I left the rest of the riders in Sisters Oregon and headed home. Mt. Shasta provided a motel room, then we rode together the next morning until he split off to Susanville, to return the bike he borrowed from his son-in-law. I headed to Placerville as the starting point to cruise along Hwy 49, through the Gold Rush towns scattered along the Sierra foothills. Windy roads, finding Mark Twain’s cabin (above pic), and exploring the funky towns made it delightful, but a long day of riding. To make the last leg easier, I planned on…
Read MoreOur perception of God drives our connection with him. View him as legalistic—rules and fear of failing will consume us. View him as gracious—we may take advantage and miss obedience. View him as distant, and we never discover intimacy. Understanding his nature motivated a long search, attempting to determine how he can be personal and immediate and simultaneously present in every cubic centimeter of the universe. Was he…
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