Category: Uncategorized
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Pickin’ with Dennis
One of my oldest friends is Dennis Agajanian who I first met back in the late sixties when he and his brother Danny were performing around the LA area as “The Agajanians.” At the time, my brothers and I had a group called The Rice Kryspies and we would sometimes play the same gigs —…
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Teaching Respect with Consequences
The article below was excerpted from my book Cleared for Takeoff by HomeWord for the March edition of their parent newsletter: Respect is obviously short in supply these days, but is absolutely something our kids need to learn for their own benefit. When kids learn to respect others, they also learn to respect themselves. You…
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Facebook and the Seven Deadly Sins
Once a month, I write a short article for “CABC Parents,” an e-newsletter for parents at College Avenue Baptist Church. Here’s the latest: The Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard wrote a story about a group of very clever burglars who broke into a jewelry store one night. Rather than stealing anything, they switched the…
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Gospel Reading
The December 2011 issue of Christianity Today featured an article by Anthony Baker, a theology professor at the Seminary of the Southwest titled “Learning to Read the Gospel Again” with the subtitle “How to address our anxiety about losing the next generation.” Losing the next generation (or expressed positively—hanging on to the next generation) is…
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Reweirdifying Christianity
I am an avid reader and admirer of author and Princeton professor Kenda Creasy Dean. In response to a question “What’s the biggest challenge facing youth workers today?” on the Youth Specialties blog, she says: The biggest challenge might also be the best thing to happen to the church since the apostles and that is…
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A Fun Week in Belize
Last week Marci and I were finally able to take a week off and go on vacation, something we haven’t been able to do for a couple of years. Last summer we were stuck in a local hotel most of the summer (with people who were vacationing here) and I had a bout with Bells…
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Another Amazing Family Band on my Radio Show
Each month I try to feature a live bluegrass band on my radio program–usually whoever is appearing at the local San Diego Bluegrass Society’s 4th Tuesday event at the Boll Weevil Restaurant. I heard that a group from Orange County called the Wimberly Bluegrass Band was going to be appearing at the June SDBS event,…
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College Avenue Short Term Mission Trips
Here’s a short promo video for the short term mission trips that we are doing this year at College Avenue Baptist Church in San Diego. Marci and I will be leading the trip in June to Mexico (I talk about it a little on this video) and if you would like to go, we’d love…
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I Need to Laugh More
I’ve been reading Garrison Keillor’s latest book Pilgrims and as he usually does in his books, he makes me smile. I was reading at home this week and my wife Marci heard me chuckling out loud to myself and asked “What’s so funny?” I said, “It’s just a funny part of the book.” She said,…
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Junior High Camp @ Forest Home
Last week I accompanied the middle-school group from our church to summer camp at Forest Home. I really can’t remember the last time I spent a week with a group of junior high boys as a cabin counselor, but the sounds, the smells (especially the smells), the cabin discussions … they all felt strangely familiar…