Jeff's Musings

The past several months have been a whirlwind of moving from the pastorate of an established church to the uncharted waters of launching a brand new church. It is less than 48 hours until Bridge Church at Perry has it’s first preview and we are still scrambling at getting our equipmen, supplie...

Believe it or not, the house that was used in the 1983 movie, A Christmas Story is located in Cleveland. This week I took a bunch of guys from Mississippi to see this house and for some of them it was like they had met the President! The movie takes place in the 40’s and […]...

A pressing issue in ministry is understanding how to work with difficult people to bring about positive changes. A difficult person will disrupt fellowship, disable unity within the church body, and ruin relationships with specific individuals. These are grievous consequences of a difficult person&#...

I find myself writing more about people I care about than theology, politics, or church growth. When you think about it, it’s people that matter more than anything else on this planet. People matter more than animals, careers, possessions, or pleasures. It’s people that help make this li...

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 ...