The Rural Think Tank
…It's Different Out Here.
You never know when God is going to drop something into your lap, and you have to do it. Years ago, I had the opportunity to speak through a translator to a group of Bhutanese refugees in Rochester, New York. My wife and I were on a trip doing groundwork for an upcoming missions team. …
Rural America is approaching, (or has already approached) a tipping point in education. The education dollars are largely no longer there. We have to come up with innovative solutions to have competitive students that complete school, have reasons to stay, and start business. We are shipping out our “best and brightest”, leading to a “Brain …
I had the opportunity to visit DC with my sons as part of a school trip last week. It was the first time any of us had been to DC. We were able to visit many of the monuments, memorials, Arlington National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Mount Vernon and more. One of the places was the Vietnam …
I will be the first to tell you that I am not an expert in ministry. I do things, and try to figure out what can work (mostly by finding out what doesn’t from trying it) The words I am about to write, I write in encouragement and love to strengthen those working alongside me …
It’s Friday by SM Lockridge – It’s Friday….Jesus is praying Peter’s a sleeping Judas is betraying But Sunday’s comin’ It’s Friday….Jesus is praying Peter’s a sleeping Judas is betraying But Sunday’s comin’ It’s Friday ….Pilate’s struggling The council is conspiring The crowd is vilifying They don’t even know That Sunday’s comin’ It’s Friday….The disciples are …
This post was originally published on my other blog, MinistryPlace.net “Why do we do this ministry every year?” “Well…kinda because we’ve always been the ones to do It?….” We have all had that conversation in our churches. There seems to be that one ministry in every church that is a sacred cow that happens every year only because it …
This post was originally published on my other blog, MinistryPlace.net We live in a world where context is vital to our understanding. One of the reasons our society struggles with parts of the Bible is that it is set in an agrarian context. Jesus and Paul used that backdrop and crafted wonderful illustrations. Let’s look …
This post was originally published on my other blog, MinistryPlace.net Last weekend brought a snowstorm like I have never seen before. I grew up in the midwest, and have seen and done some really crazy things in snow and ice, but this was beyond anything else. We had temps, not wind chills of -12 and …
This post was originally published on my other blog, MinistryPlace.net Sometimes you learn life lessons in the strangest places. I learned a lesson the other day about Church Consulting at a Red Wing Shoe Store. There are some high standards for selling shoes that have the Red Wing logo. Here are some things we can learn …
This post was originally published on my other blog, MinistryPlace.Net If you live in a community of any size, there is a decent probability that one of the churches will have hired new or replacement staff members. Uprooting and moving a family two miles or two thousand miles is a big deal. How can the believers …