Good evening, friend. How is your soul? I know this has been a day of continued unrest, but regardless of what you are hearing on the news or social media, God is still on the throne! Jesus is still Lord. The Spirit of the risen Christ is living within you and nothing, nothing, nothing can […]
Sleep on This: March 17
Good evening my Chapel Hill Family: During this season of disruption, I feel the need to connect with you on a more regular basis. The word “pastor” means “shepherd”; my favorite image of the privileged role to which I am called. I am an under-shepherd of Jesus, the Great Shepherd, and you are my assigned […]
Let’s make it an adventure!
One of the most interesting sites in Rome actually lies UNDER Rome. 90 miles of catacombs were carved in ancient times as burial sites. But these underground cemeteries were transformed into churches when persecuted Christians began to worship in them during the first and second century. It was certainly not as convenient as an above-ground […]
Leadership factory
It is a great source of pride—I hope a sanctified sort of pride!—for us at Chapel Hill to say that we have raised up 16 young leaders to ordained pastoral ministry. Well, I’m delighted to announce that number is about to go to 19! As of today, I have handed Julie Hawkins, Ryan Palmer, and […]
Something special
I always hope and expect that our weekend services will be special; that there will be a strong sense of the Holy Spirit moving through our music, worship, prayers and spoken word. But last weekend was something REALLY special. And if you missed—dang! I’ll give you a recap. At the end of the sermon in […]
Secret sauce
I think Hires is my favorite burger joint. It’s in Salt Lake City, my wife’s hometown. Every time we visit, we have to go to Hires. Fresh, never-frozen ground beef, homemade buns, vegetables that taste like they were just picked from the garden—mmmmm, so good! But the topper is the sauce. The secret sauce. It’s […]
Get out of the stands and into the game
(Okay, first things first. We are going to reveal some very exciting news at our services this weekend. You won’t want to hear this second-hand!) Now—I still remember the school we played. It was Washington. A tough, inner-city (at least as inner-city as Yakima got at the time) football team. I was playing on the […]
Kobe
I was still at church Sunday morning when I saw the headlines beginning to scroll across my phone. A helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and an unknown number of other passengers had crashed near Calabasas, California. There were no survivors. One of the greatest basketball players ever to take the floor was dead. Even if you […]
Making history—and history in the making
If you were here for our 10:45 am service two Sundays ago, you made history. Through a scheduling error, I realized I had to fly out of Sea Tac on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm, which meant I could not possibly preach the 10:45 am service. I realized this just the day before and our […]
For our kids
Tan Jenkins’ memorial service on January 4 was one of the largest we have ever hosted. We don’t often have to ask folks at a funeral to scoot in; we did with Tan’s. In part, this was because of the remarkable, courageous, radiant person Tan was. Her unconquerable smile and unquenchable joy, regardless of her […]