If you asked my wife, she would tell you that I have a great memory. She might go on to say something like, “Don’t tell him something you don’t want to ever hear about again because he won’t ever forget.” Now she has good reason to say that. I have a knack for remembering things. I can remember things about the Bible I memorized when I was a kid at church camp. I can remember the entire starting l...  Read More

We’re just a couple of weeks from beginning a new weekend series called, The Joshua Project. What we will be doing is looking at selected passages (stories) in the first six chapters of Joshua to see what lessons we can learn about Promised Land living. It should be a great study.One of the things that I have noticed over the years is the tendency that we all sometimes have to make excuses for our...  Read More

As we look back on the last ten years, one thing that seems to be consistent in our world is some level of economic uncertainty.  Just consider the following:2000 – Tech bubble bursts in March 20002001 – Terrorist attack of 9/112002 – Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, Qwest, Global Crossing, ImClone, and Adelphia – hiding debt and misrepresenting earnings2003 – War waged by the U.S. and Britain agains...  Read More

Recently I read an article on crosswalk.com by Ed Stetzer called “Future Trends in Evangelicalism.” The article began by talking about how for the first ten years of this new millennium churches have been finding new and successful ways to communicate the gospel. Stetzer went on to say, “For that to continue in the next decade, several issues will need to be discussed and resolved.”  Here are four...  Read More

One of my favorite biblical characters is Joseph (His story is told in Genesis 37-50). If you grew up in Sunday school, then you know that as a very young man, he was sold into slavery by his brothers who were filled with jealousy because Joseph was their father’s obvious favorite. Joseph ultimately wound up in Egypt, the slave of Potiphar, who had such confidence in him he put him in charge of ev...  Read More

Recently, as part of a college speech class my daughter took this summer, she was required to give a seven-minute “persuasive” speech. This wasn’t the first speech she had to give, but it was the last one and by virtue of that, it was important to her grade. In preparation for the speech, the professor gave the class a list labeled “Restricted Topics,” which included date rape, drinking and drivin...  Read More

This past week we enjoyed a great Father’s Day celebration in all of our weekend services. I appreciate the great work that Brian Tabor and Joey Santos do in our worship and arts ministry. I hope you know how blessed we are to have them both. And I hope you know how blessed we are to have so many talented singers and musicians right here in our church.I was surprised and deeply moved by the video ...  Read More

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what the future can look like for Mount Pleasant Christian Church. In the local church, just like in so many other areas of life, there is always a need for strategic planning. At the present time, our church is experiencing God’s blessing in some very tangible ways. The completion of our Community Life Center/Student Ministry Center almost ...  Read More

This past weekend, as most of you know, we experienced 114 baptisms in our weekend services. I’ve got to tell you that in 30 years of full-time Christian ministry, I have never been a part of something like this. I have never seen God move in so many people so spontaneously to respond to the call of faith expressed in baptism. Months ago I made the decision to preach about baptism on this particul...  Read More

I wanted to take a minute to write and say what a blessing this past Easter weekend was for me, and I hope and pray it was for you as well. I’ll be honest and tell you I didn’t quite know what to expect in terms of the crowd because Easter fell on one of the two weekends that bookended Spring Break. I’ve never seen anything like Spring Break in Central Indiana (I hope many of you were able to get ...  Read More

In my last blog entry, I shared some thoughts about friendship based on a recent trip Sandy and I took to Houston. I have to be honest, though, and tell you that one of the things I miss the most about living in Houston (and Broken Arrow), is Blue Bell Ice Cream. Now if you've been a part of the Mount Pleasant family for any length of time, you know that I have a slight addiction to Blue Bell. My ...  Read More

This weekend begins a new six-week sermon series called, "A New Command" based on Jesus' words in John 13:34-35, A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (NIV) More than anything else, this series will be about how to build genuine caring relationships with one anoth...  Read More