Hi Family and Friends!
To my American friends, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and, as always to all, thanks so much for reading and partnering in prayer. Here is my latest:
As we usually discuss more theology than carpentry, I thought I’d change things up a bit! When we moved into our fixer-upper, there was this weird landing in the living room at the foot of the stairs going up to the second floor. We wondered why it was there and, more concerningly, what it might be covering up. I really didn’t want to get into it. Similar to stubborn sins or painful wounds, we’d rather avoid the difficult or unknown.
Finally, at the urging of my wife and with the help of a good friend, I tore out the old landing, carefully removing the existing, tongue and groove, pine flooring to match and patch later. After four hours of work, there was a gaping 2’x3′ hole looking down to the basement! I temporarily covered it for safety with a piece of plywood and an old step. Then, over the Thanksgiving break, I redid the space with a new newel post, stairs, railing, balusters, and flooring. It turned out that the reason the bizarre landing was there in the first place was to cover over inadequate headspace going down to the basement (the basement stairs are right underneath that landing). Thankfully, I found a creative way to address that and will work on the basement finishes at a later time. Although I’ve still got some painting and polyurethaning left, the results are transformative and were well worth the effort.
Care Net: I mentioned in the last update that I was in St. Louis in September for a week at Care Net’s Annual Conference. We had about 1300 in attendance and I did a mainstage interview with our President Roland Warren and Marcia Marron, Executive Director of Life Choices Women’s Clinic in Eustis, FL (see featured image above). The interview gives a great picture of the work I do and you can watch it here (you will love Marcia!). Through a non-political and practical resource called Making Life Disciples, the team I lead equips churches to decrease the impact of abortion and better connect pregnancy center clients with local church discipleship.
Book: I just completed another round of edits and submitted it to Zondervan and then 30 plus of the most prominent Christian publishers through a service called christianbookproposals.com. We will see what happens!
Here is my latest two-sentence pitch: How I Became a Christian Despite the Church is the fascinating story of breaking free from the shame, abuse, and distorted views of sex associated with a particularly destructive, cultish, and harmful church called Berachah. Unique in its honesty and depth, the book is ultimately designed to show the beauty of biblical faith and to build up rather than tear down.
Blog: We have about 135 subscribers and there’s now a topical index on the menu bar to make finding and sharing individual posts easier. Check it out here!
Prayer: Please pray that:
- I will secure an excellent publisher for the book.
- God would increase the reach of Making Life Disciples and give us eternal impact. By the way, if you would like to give toward Care Net’s ministry during this holiday season, you can do so here.
Thanks and have a great week!