On Sunday morning Pastor Eric preached from Luke 5:1-11. In this Scripture, Jesus preaches to the multitudes from a boat before telling Peter to push out into the deeper water to go fishing. Having just washed his nets after a fruitless (or should I say, fishless) night of work, Peter replies, “Master, we have toiled more »

For those of you out there interested in preaching, here’s a book I would highly recommend: Expositional Preaching by David Helm. At only 100-some pages, it’s an easy read with sound practical advice for preparing messages. Part of the 9Marks book series born out of Mark Dever’s “nine marks of a healthy church,” this book promotes more »

So I’ve been thinking a lot about the church lately… You might say, “Well, of course. You’re doing a church planting internship!” Yes, that’s true, but that’s only part of it. Another part of it is simply the fact that I see local churches everywhere I go, whether in Omaha or in the Des Moines area. more »

I love how Hebrews 12 begins: “Seeing then that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” In the context the author is urging his readers to live in faith, following the example of the many men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11. As I begin my church planting internship and more »

No, pastors and church planters don’t have one-day work weeks, preaching on Sunday and then taking rest of the week off. Sunday is only the end of one week of hard work and the beginning of another. Yesterday was my first full day in Bennington for my internship. In fact, in all my trips out more »

The sun was shining, the snow was melting, and the wind was blowing slightly. A golden ’95 Toyota Camry meandered its way through several wind farms, clipping along at a steady 70 miles per hour. Leaving a growing city of familiarity and comfort, the vehicle’s operator traveled 2 1/2 hours away to a city of more »

The plane began its descent on American soil, and shortly before 6am EST we were on the ground in Atlanta. A new day, a new month, a new city…and a new perspective. My ministry trip to Brasil is over, but life continues on. I could not just come back the same person that I was when more »

Hello, Fortaleza. We arrived at the massive bus station in Fortaleza shortly before 7am and disembarked with our stuff. We found a couple taxi cabs that took us to the BMM apartment office where I stayed during my first night in Brasil, and we dropped off our stuff there so we could go shopping. After more »

So, Tuesday morning I woke up enjoyed Aunt Julie’s homemade carne de sol tapioca for breakfast one last time, and spent the day packing and cleaning up any loose ends in the house. Other than that, not a whole lot went on. For lunch we had mashed potatoes, chicken, and vegetables, and for supper we more »

One of the beautiful things about new experiences are the new relationships you form. Indeed, for an experience to be enjoyable, relationships are one of those necessary elements. Well, I enjoyed several new relationships during my time in Brazil, and it was time to start saying farewell to some of the more significant people I more »