A lot of leaders are being abruptly removed from their posts these days. Pastors, seminary presidents, ministry and business CEOs. In many cases, they were fired without warning. One day things seemed to be going along just fine, and then suddenly they were told that...
Kelly can be one of the best friends in the world. She’s thoughtful, caring, and always eager to encourage and serve others. The people in her Bible study and small group always look forward to seeing her, and her coworkers think she is one of the most pleasant people...
Megan had switched on a force field that put the Starship Enterprise to shame.
It had been another one of our difficult home-schooling days.
I have dozens of passports, and I need to renew them constantly. No, I’m not James Bond or Jason Bourne. I don’t fly from country to country using alternative identities to evade the NSA, CIA, or MI6. I just love people. I enjoy meeting, understanding, encouraging and...
Becky looked forward to her wedding with a mixture of excitement and sadness. Mark was the man of her dreams, and she was thrilled about becoming his wife. But there was another man she had thought about many times over the years, and his memory brought mostly pain...
Here is a question I am often asked during RW seminars: “My four-year old daughter has a habit of lying to us about her sinful behavior. For example, if we find her standing near a wall covered with crayon marks, and she is still holding crayons in her hand, she will...
There are three things you and I were never designed to experience: illness, death and rejection. That is why these experiences feel so foreign and hurt so much: they are utterly contrary to what we were made for. When God created the world, everything in it was “very...
One of the best ways to improve your relationships is to develop the habit of drawing attention to EGGs. Not the ones you cook or search for at Easter, but the innumerable Evidences of God’s Grace that he lavishes on you and those around you ... and calls you to...
A young Christian couple came to my office just before Easter one year and asked me to mediate the legal issues of their divorce. The wife had been unfaithful, and their relationship had been shattered. They had argued, excused and blamed for a couple of weeks and...
How would you feel if God enabled you to use simple relational skills you learned at church to solve a million dollar problem for your employer? That’s exactly what a woman named Diane did when she stepped in to resolve an employee conflict that had stumped her...
One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was to ask my mother and my mother-in-law to give up their car keys. Doing it with each of them on the same day (since they both lived with us) was especially difficult. Our moms loved running their own errands, going out for...
At last he had his chance. Clutching his prepared statement in his hand, Mark sat down in the front pew, ready to get even with the elders (all names have been changed). Six months earlier they had refused to support his promotion to senior pastor. They had stood...
As pastor Kent drove home from our peacemaking training, he had no idea how quickly his new skills would be put to the test. He had barely walked through the door when his wife informed him about a conflict that was dividing their small town. Three high school...
Most families struggle far more with relational challenges than they do with academic training. The relational challenges of day-to-day life can easily eclipse educational issues, sidetrack lesson plans and even strain marriages. Conflict can also infect churches,...
What would your church do if it was suddenly asked to resolve conflicts like these among your members? A couple has lost their baby through the negligence of two nurses A man has confessed to molesting several children in your youth ministry Several adult siblings are...