Everyone that is a Christian understands the Cross …right? Since Pentecostal Sunday there has been a journey towards the Cross that has shaken my core into a new brokenness.  We, as Christians make the sign of the cross at church, when we pray all without thinking of its power.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Spirit that crosses our hearts and sets us on fire. Spending a few days in the hills of Georgia serving thousands of other Christians spreading His love and word at our annual trip to AtlantaFest at Stone Mountain can bring anyone to their knees.  Between the Christian artists, speakers and guests there were moments of profound brokenness and healing that all were directed toward the Cross.  Through pain, joy, tears and repenting, lives were changed and redemption found. Starting with singer Matt Maher on opening night describing how broken people can be saved by the healing power of Christ and how broken hearts can be mended by taking our sins to the Cross.  The theme continued throughout the festival, from artist like R3D, Thousand Foot Krutch, Rhett Walker Band to Kari Jobe there were four days of phenomenal worship and testimonies of healing. Professor and Apologist Ergun Caner broke it all down in a real ‘honest’ way describing how a Muslim was saved by one person that showed him the way to the Cross.

There are some leadership lessons that can be learned from Kevin Durant’s MVP acceptance speech. Kevin Durant was just named the NBA MVP – In a matter of a few minutes he shows all of us how to be a MVP leader in just over 7 minutes he exemplified what being a servant leader means and set an example we could all try to follow. 1. Share the credit and spotlight with others – As a basketball player  he could have made the MVP award all about himself, yet  he gave all credit to God and his teammates and never once made the award about himself.   As part of any team we are only as successful as those that we lead.  In moments of triumph a leader is best to be humble and gracious and acknowledge their teammates. 2.  Publicly Honor and commend the sacrifice of others– He stresses about how his team sacrifices for him and how they would run through walls for him.  He expresses his gratitude for their actions both on and off the court that motivated and inspired him to be his best. Will your team sacrifice for you and you for them? http://youtu.be/AKk-yJ4cRDM 3. Always thank those that help you succeed (especially your mom) – He gave most of the credit to the real MVP in his life, his mom who had sacrificed for him and his brother to get them where they are. He played the heart-strings a bit when he talked about moving into their first apartment that had nothing in […]

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As many of you have noticed there have been a number of faith-based movies that have come out of Hollywood over the past few months.  The movie Heaven is for Real is another installment in the Hollywood minority that are not afraid to share with the world their beliefs. The movie is an adaptation of the 2010 book written by Todd Burpo  about his family and their four-year old child Colton that has the opportunity to visit Heaven and come back and share his story. Colton played by Connor Corum is the  cutest four-year that has hit the big screen in many years.  He is smart kid and I even turned to my wife and commented “he’s just four” as some of the conversations he had with his dad Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) were a lot more than you would expect.  Then again I don’t know too many that have been to Heaven either. Colton get’s very sick and ends up needing an appendectomy, while he was in surgery he had a ‘out of body’ experience.  He did not die which was challenging for some of the cynics for we all think you have to die to go to Heaven.  Yet the things he saw and the people he met would make almost anyone a believer and well watch the movie and find out. Todd Burpo is a pastor at a small church in Nebraska.  Having a child that was near death and comes back to talk about it would be challenging for anyone.  Being a preacher in […]

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