The Notebook

I was in the corporate world for several years before I followed God’s plan for my life to pastor. I had the opportunity to work for Navistar International and Rubbermaid. Both of these companies are large Fortune 500 companies and while I was with Rubbermaid, it was voted two years in a row, ...

This weekend several church planters, including myself, went on a roadtrip to Philadelphia to visit John Cope, pastor of Keystone Community Fellowship. Nothing like a trip with a bunch of guys in a fifteen passenger van to make you really appreciate your wife and family. I was with Randy Chestnut, A...

Some would argue, and I might add pretty sternly that because the word church is missing from chapters 4-21, then the church is not present (has been raptured) in any of the events which take place in these chapters. In chapters 1-3, the church is repeatedly mentioned (19 times). The words “ch...

May we never forget those who died in the September 11th attack and especially the brave public servants who lost their lives. This was my generation’s Pearl Harbor. May God continue to bless the United States!...

A couple of years ago I wrote a book study on vision to be used in the small group ministry at the church I was pastoring. Over the past year I have added a couple of more sections to the book and have re-written much of the original content. It has wound up to be […]...

My spouse is the former Julie Ann Smeenge and we were married on May 25, 1981. For those of you suffering from math deficiency, that is twenty-five years. We were just kids when we said the two words that we really didn’t understand then and sometimes still can’t comprehend today. I was ...

Recently a group of high school students from Kinston, Alabama were in the Cleveland area on a misson trip to help us survey Perry, OH for a new church that my wife and I are launching. As they went around neighborhoods asking questions like “what type of music do you listen to” and R...

The word psychology derives from two Greek terms meaning “the study of persons.” Some argue that since the Greek root from which we get psych means “spirit” or “soul”, psychology is religious in nature and involves the study of the spirit and soul. People today when using the term psycho...

As a pastor, I have had the opportunity to counsel scores of people on issues ranging from marital problems to criminal behavior. Having taken phsycology classes in pursuit of a Business Degree and taking classes for degrees in Pastoral Ministry, I want to look at both models over the next two days....

It amazes me that the majority of us have no idea what we have been called to do. If that is the case, then life for many of us is meaningless. For many years I thought my calling was to be a good husband and father. Maybe you feel it is your calling to be […]...