Almighty God, our Father:Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory. History is your story. The Scripture tells us, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made. Now today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting…

We have just launched the latest redesign of Cross Point Church’s website. I love the way the site looks and the way it accounts for multiple campuses. But my favorite feature is how simple the site makes to share content anywhere online. As a part of our MediaMachine back end tool, all the code and images, including the Cross Point branded player, is generated through a simple interface that the church staff controls. We believe it should be very simple for Cross Point staff to create tools such as evites, banners, links and embeddable video or audio. We also believe that it should be simple for anyone visiting the site to share such content with their networks as well. However, since the player itself is branded and always links back to Cross Point’s site, the content is never out of context. “Who is this? Where does this come from?” are…

It’s a new year and this time I decided not to make any new year’s resolutions. Instead, I’m going to make new year’s promises. While some might say this is simply a matter of semantics, it’s important to me to make the distinction. It’s easy for me to break a resolution, but a promise, well, that’s a big deal. In 2009: 1. I promise to say yes to God’s prompting on my life. I’ll say yes to divine appointments even after a long day when I’m looking forward to flying home with hopes of no one sitting next to me. 2. I promise to say yes to my family every time I can. It’s easy to shut down my wife and sons with the simple, “no.” But I promise to yes every time I can and only to say no when there’s a better yes waiting for them. 3. I…

Last week I picked up a copy of “Quitting Church. Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to do about it.” This is the latest book from Julia Duin who is the Religion Editor for The Washington Times. I had high hopes for the book since it promised to help church leaders to answer the tough question: how to stop people from leaving our churches. Sadly, Julia never fully answered that question. The majority of the book focused on the well-researched statistics the author gathered about church exodus in America (most mainline denominational churches–nothing new here) and a few anecdotal examples from Ms. Duin’s own friends and associates . But even in recounting her struggles with the local churches she’s attended over the years as well as her friends’ issues, Julia fails to give the reader answers. The one constant in “Quitting Church” is the author’s inability to find a…

Yesterday we had The A Group annual Christmas Event. I call it an event because it’s way more than just a party. First we closed shop by noon Friday and the entire team then made its way to our Brentwood Costco for lunch. [ Before you call me cheap, read on.] As we dined on the exquisite chicken bake and pepperoni pizza everyone drew a name in secret. Then I performed one of my favorite Christmas tradition: pulling out a bunch of $100 bills and giving one to each of our team members. The rules are simple: Buy a total of $100 worth of gifts for your secret Santa during the next hour, take it home, wrap the gift(s) and come back that evening for our dinner party. Since no one knows who you’re buying for, it’s always fun looking at what people are buying and trying to guess whom…

During the thanksgiving holidays it dawned on me that I’ve known my childhood friend Wagner for almost 30 years. That’s a long time and yet, I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday at a youth camp in Jaboticabal, Brazil. But as I take inventory, I realize that I have been blessed with several life-long friends. The older I get, the more valuable people become to me. When you put people before position, profit or personal gain, it changes everything. As trite as it might sound, that’s what Jesus has asked us to do. This mindset allows me to have life-long friendships with people whom I just met. Really. Think about it. As I write this, I’m in Orlando, Florida with several Pastors and Church Leaders. Some of these men are my friends. We happen to be business associates as well, but first and foremost, we are friends. I’m…

I have the best job in the world. I really do. I get to work with great men and women who have a passion to make the world a better place. Some of them are church leaders, and some start or lead amazing organizations. My friend Wayne Elsey is one of those rare people who has a winning combination of passion, business acumen and relentless drive. Less than four years ago he started Soles4Souls. Since then he’s managed to give away several million pairs of shoes. As a matter of fact, every 22 seconds, S4S puts shoes on the feet of someone in need. Today they’re starting a new challenge: 50,000 pairs in 50 days. And they’re doing it through social media. It sounds like a lot of shoes, but for $5 you and I can help change two lives with the gift of shoes–giving them comfort, dignity and even…

Everyone has to win. I believe that about most exchanges in life, and more so when talking about business. I have spent a lot of my life arguing with brilliant software engineers and developers about the need to create the administrative back end of software as easy and beautiful as the user interface. “We must make it Martha friendly,” is my cry around the office. Years ago we developed software for a church who hired a sweet lady named Martha to work it. Well, Martha was not computer savvy. That’s an understatement—she thought the mouse was a foot pedal the first day she looked at her terminal. Martha did us a big favor. She forced us to make things simple; very simple. And from then on, every time things start to get complicated, I dig Martha up (she’s not really dead, only gone from her old position). “What would Martha…

In my line of work I have seen a lot of weird stuff Christians do. But this video has its own special category. Really. Keep in mind that this was shot just last year. And make sure you watch it all the way through. It gets even better towards the end.