A few months ago I saw a bizarre sight as I drove through the suburbs of a nearby town. A woman was walking down the sidewalk, wearing an oversized t-shirt with a hand-scrawled message across the back: "I made my boyfriend eat food with spit in it."
I surmised that either she had spit in her boyfriend's food on purpose, or for some reason or another, it was an accident. Either way, gauging from the outcome...
I have a confession to make. For most of my life, I have hated praying. I have always known it was important and, theoretically, one of the most powerful tools made available to followers of Jesus. But I rarely experienced that power in all the years I spent growing up in church, or as a volunteer and professional leader in various ministries. Prayer was my place of shame, and I struggled with the guilt of hating prayer and not doing it well, or sometimes, even at all.
For an extrovert addicted to people, prayer seemed like the worst kind of torture...
This past weekend at Real Life | LA, we celebrated our third communion service as a new baby church. We’ve grown a lot over the past eight weeks of our church’s existence. God is at work in a powerful way, and we’ve witnessed quite a few miracles, healings, and magnificent expressions of God’s providence and grace. We come to Real Life from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. But if you’re like me, you may find it all a little overwhelming! Sometimes I even wonder, "is this new church really happening?!" I had the joyous privilege of presiding over communion last Sunday, and was struck by the emotion of the event. As I looked across the congregation, it hit me. As we gather...
Just over two weeks ago, I sat with a group of mostly new faces on a Tuesday night attending my first bible study outside of a small group. It is the first bible study for Real Life. I had missed the first of a 7 week study on Acts. I remember thinking, “It has been quite some time since my wife and I have even belonged to a small group.”My excitement about experiencing the planting of a church compelled me to join this study to learn about the beginnings of the church.
