I'm a father of three amazing girls Samantha (almost 5), Avonlea (3) and Joanna (1). I have to say, I'm grateful to be a father of daughters, especially after hearing stories from all the boy-dads at our church. Chris, our lead pastor, and I were talking the other day about the curious case of middle children being surprisingly aggressive against their older siblings. As ...

This past Sunday, in our Matthew's Passion series, we took a deeper look at Matthew 27:1-10 to understand what God's word has to say about the idea of humanity's attempts to justify (or make right, to be in right standing) themselves before God, before others, and with themselves. It's a challenging passage for sure; most people focus in on Judas' absolute spiral into desp...

Dear Austin, I wasn't born here. But I'm here now. My family and I, we moved here because God loves you. And I want you to know that. I'm so amazed at how wonderfully strange and diverse you are, from the farm silos in Hutto, to the suburbs of Cedar Park, the bungalows of midtown, and the strange upside down of what's across the river. Yes, I live up north can you tell?...

The Las Vegas Tragedy Hope Beyond "Thoughts and Prayers" When I was in college, a friend and his sister were murdered in their home in College Station. I remember exactly where I was when I found out: I was on a leadership retreat for a camp in southwest Missouri when I got a cryptic text message from someone I didn't know too well saying that her thoughts and prayers we...

I lost my laptop charger for a few days this week. I know it sounds dumb, but it's the main reason why I haven't been able to write this post sooner. I don't know about you, but it's incredible how much of my work puts me in front of a screen. Like I mentioned last week, Chris, our lead pastor, basically forced me to get a smart phone. Many of us don't think about it much....

Back in 2003 I got my first cell phone. It was by today's standards barely a toy, but at the time it meant so much: freedom, independence, power, and yes, snake and tiny tiny tetris. It would be another ten years before I joined the staff at Wells Branch Community Church and, still rocking a flip phone, my senior pastor dropped an iPhone 4 in my lap. "I'm going to need you...

A Most Sacred Service This past Sunday was my first Sunday serving with our Set Up and Tear Down teams at church, and the experience of working with those guys really messed me up it was one of the most stressful, difficult, painful and worshipful experiences of church I've ever had. Here's how it went: 7:00AM arrive at the Rec Center with driving rain and 30mph winds ...

Whenever I see the catastrophe of Hurricane Harvey, I'm immediately filled with emotion. It reminds me of coming home from the battlefield of Iraq and immediately being greeted by Hurricane Katrina. I went to a young adult beach retreat in Destin, Florida while watching the horror unfold in Louisiana. Catastrophe happens here. And even though we have a stronger ability to ...

What happened in Charlottesville? That question has ping ponged through my mind all week. I have read news story after news story trying to piece together what happened and what the response of the Christian Church should be. Let's talk about what happened and what the response should be. What happened? Here is a prettygood videoto describe what happened. Essentially a ...

Running For President When I was a yearling (sophomore) at West Point, I had this great aspiration to be the student body president. I thought it would be a great idea for me to lead our class into years of legacy of greatness for the class of 1999. So I put my name in the hat and then thought of how I would run my campaign. West Point required all yearlings to take an en...