Church for Normies

It's a common, "folksy", thing we've heard: "Never pray for patience because God will answer that with lots of trouble!" As if to say, what? God is bumbles around, capriciously looking for ways to make our life harder? If that's true, how can we trust God with help during our most desperate times? What if patience - and its conveyance, delays and difficulties - is e...

Delays. Whether it's a stop light, road construction, a post-poned or cancelled flight, or much needed job or money, delays seem to suck out the joy and peace in our lives. But delays are not only a fact of life, they are also an important part of God's process in resolving the dreams he's placed in our lives. It's understandable: who wants to wait? But if you're serious about...

Noah was told to build a giant ship. Moses was told to go back to Egypt and demand the Hebrew's freedom - with no means to compel their slave masters. Gideon defeated 135,000 Midianites with just 300 men, and some torches. Jesus was going to cover the world with his disciples starting with just 12 (eleven, actually, since Judas ... well, you know). God seems to always seem to do things in unex...

🎧EXTRA: Check the bonus beginning montage! Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Did it ever occur to you that only humans (as far as we know of) imagine the future, dream dreams of something that could be, or should be, or must be? In fact, our imagination is a gift and creation of God. God dreams! Think about it:...

To define culture is an adventure of sorts because it can mean a lot of things. It's a sample of bacteria. It's the expression of arts and literature. It's the standards and mores of a society. At the end of the day, you can scratch your head and be puzzled in it's definition, but know exactly what it is - or what it is not. Enter the Gospel. What the world didn't know at the t...

Dr. Dallas Willard wrote "The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become." According to Jesus' own word, the only way that truly happens is when we are born from above. Jesus did not mean some kind of ephemeral, philosophical, state of mind, he meant that we need to be supernaturally reborn through the Spirit, empowered by his sacrificial, vicarious dea...

Welcome to Season 5 of the Living Your Dash Podcast! Congratulations, listeners, for making it this far with us! It all started off as an interesting side-project, but it has become a favorite (at least to the show's co-host!) We've already started to talk about a series that Rick started: The Fourth Word. This week's focus? Even though the culture would love to "self-identify&quo...

In his satirical masterpiece, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams wrote: "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Funny guy! However, nothing could be more important than origins because otherwise - well - you wouldn't be reading this. Origins is much more than the physical univer...

RECOVERY is defined as "a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength or the action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost." It can apply to the economy, business function, physical strength after accident or illness, as well as reclaiming that stolen bike or car. It also applies to our character - which if you're a sinner - everyone is in...

Leadership author John C. Maxwell wrote about the Leadership Law of Magnetism, which is "Who you are is not determined by what you want. It’s determined by who you are." Whether we're leading the person in the mirror, your family, your work group or an organization, it's the quality of the person INSIDE that matters, not what you say. Hopefully, the two align! In this episode, Ri...

"Commitment is what transforms a promise into a reality." Did Abraham Lincoln say it? We don't know. What we do know is that it's the truth. Promises are easy to make and say - but commitment of time, effort and resources into real action is what makes it happen. What about YOU? What kind of promises do you make to yourself? Your family? Your church? To the Lord? We can say a lot...

Passion gets a lot of street cred, these days. We're encouraged - rightly so - to follow our passions. Wisely . That's where purpose comes in. But passion alone can get one into a lot of problems! But purpose with out passion is just a plan. So what brings life and fruit into a purpose with passion? Devotion . Devotion to the Purpose-Giver Person, of course, but devotion wins out when the...

James Clear did us a service by asking a defining question: "Life is a series of tradeoffs, and greater results usually require greater tradeoffs. The question is not, "Do you want to be great at this?" The question is, "What are you willing to give up in order to be great at this?" The Disciple's Calling - generally, as we fit into "His Kingdom Come and Will be D...

"Honesty," wrote Warren Buffet, "is a very expensive gift. Don't expect it from cheap people." And when we think about it, a person who is honest is more than someone who tells the truth. It is a person who has done his best to integrate his values, convictions, beliefs, behaviors, and actions into a single person. It is very difficult to do; we spend our life perfecting it...

We hear it quite often: "Around here? We're FAMILY!" But if you're also a customer, they expect to get paid; If you need technical support or warranty fulfillment, prepared to spend a lot of time with a guy in an east Asian country; if there's an economic down-turn, they might just lay-off a family member ... But FAMILY in the Bible is a Christian distinctive! God has definit...

Former vice-president Al Gore once challenged America to stare into "The Inconvenient Truth." In actuality, the truth isn't concerned about one's convenience with it - it simply is. The world has never been keen to the acceptance of truth. Time and again, the world has proven that we'd rather restructure, repackage, or destroy that which is culturally, socially, or politicall...

Leadership expert, John Maxwell, wrote: "Effective leaders sacrifice much that is good in order to dedicate themselves to what is best." Think about it: leaders sacrificially give; great leaders give sacrificially (in some cases, not in a healthy way!). You ARE a leader - whether of yourself, your family, a work team, a ministry team, or t-ball team ... but EVERYONE leads. The question i...

Stephen Covey wrote that a leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, 'Wrong jungle!' To the rest of the group under the canopy, we just want out of the jungle as quickly and as painlessly as possible. We certainly don't want to hear: "We need to restart!" But that's why we need leaders. And those leaders must persevere in the...

"Everything rises and falls on leadership," wrote John Maxwell, whether it is a Fortune 500 company or the person staring at you in the mirror every morning. Leadership, the vector into the future, the vote into the person you want to be - or your organization it must be ... it takes careful, consistent, and knowledgeable leadership. You'll find no better guide than God our Shepherd,...

The Psalmist declared and commanded: "Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious!" (Ps. 66:1-2) What does it mean to make his praise glorious? Sean attempted to talk about that when he took the pulpit on May 28, 2023, but in this very special podcast, Sean, Kenny (Grace's Worship Pastor) and Rick (Grace's Senior Pastor), sit down and...

It goes by other monikers: "Until the wheels fall off", "Until the cows come home", "Until the light go out" ... or simply: "A Lifer". It means that a person is so enthusiastic about something or discovered that wonderful nexus of their abilities, skills, and personality, that they are living out their calling. For the disciple, we're all "Lifers&qu...

When the Lord Jesus said those words, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” I doubt that many of us realized the profound authority and potential that was given to his disciples. Sure - we could have done a better job over the centuries - but the fact remains that disciples of Jesus have guided history in fruitful...

The sky diving community has funny sayings when it comes to "anomalies" with your gear after jumping out of the plane. Here's one: "If you have a problem with your parachute (due to misdeployment or gets ripped or tangled) ... think through the problem, but relax - you've got the rest of your life to figure it out ." 🤪 In this week's podcast, we discover that while...

Dr. Alister McGrath, former atheists (now theologian and professor at Gresham College) had this to say about the Priesthood of the Believer: "As early as 1520, Luther had laid the fundamental conceptual foundations for created sacred space within the secular. His doctrine of the 'priesthood of all believers' asserted that there is no genuine difference of status between the 'spiri...

Most people spend about $800 a year on the lottery. A gambling addict will waste $10,000 a year. People cope with stress in their lives by turning to games of chance for that adrenaline hit, or deceive themselves on many levels in believing that more money will be the answer to their problems. Gambling, then, wouldn't make sense to God, since he is omniscient and omnipotent. He doesn't nee...