Right at the beginning of my first appoint as a pastor to a local church my co-pastor and I met with the person who would be our mentor during our time there.  He was probably the most mission focused pastor I’ve ever met before or since.  So, I expected he would lead off with some words of wisdom about how to get our churches out and doing good things in the world.

He didn’t.

Instead, during our earliest conversations, he stressed the needs to have good worship.  “You can’t grow a church without good worship.” He’d say.  To which I would now add Good worship won’t necessarily grow your church.

Continue reading →

So now the other side of the story. If you missed the first side, it’s here.

One of the most striking things you notice, or actually don’t notice, is how immersive the Disneyland experience is. They’ve done some amazingly creative things so that when you first walk on the property you do not see or hear anything that isn’t Disneyland. What I mean is, everything you see from the gates on is part of the experience and nothing from the outside world intrudes.

Continue reading →

I was blessed with the ability to spend the week after Easter in Disneyland with my wife, kids, and other family. Besides taking my son on Pirates of the Caribbean for the first time [EPIC], I came away with a lot of interesting observations.

(I’m going to wax poetic about Disney a little bit here. Don’t be haters yet. Tune in next time)

Continue reading →