Whenmy daughters were younger,I taught them what little I know about the game of checkers. We often enjoyed playing in front of the big fireplace at Cracker Barrel restaurants.I can recall when I was growing up how much my cousins and I enjoyed playing against one another in our own little checkers tournaments. When I was in junior high school, I was introduced to the gam...

Leaders are called upon to make decisions. Sometimes the decisions are greeted with enthusiasm, while others are greeted with disdain. If you have ever tried to change your church's name or construct a new facility, you understand. Church leaders are often faced with inherent difficulties when decisions need to be made. Depending upon the leader's church polity, a decisio...

As I look out over our congregation in multiples services each week, I always see faces that I don't recognize (especially since they're wearing masks) -but I love it! It affirms to me that God is growing and building His church in beautiful, coastal South Carolina. Seeing and meeting new people each week also shows me thatLCCis alive. And living things always grow. Growt...

I was once working on a leadership study based on 1 Timothy 3. I realized that Paul gives us eight questions that every leader should evaluate themselves on. 1. Can I be trusted with insider information? Leaders often hear it first, or last, but we are often privy to serious and vital information. I am forced to ask myself, do people trust me when they tell me something...

"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." So goes the sage advice from president Harry Truman. I have books filling cabinets, nightstands, and bookshelves.I have full shelves in my office, my home, and my study. My wife, Darlene, has always been incredibly patient with all of this and doesn't ask me too often to clean things out and get rid of a few bo...

Growth in leadership is something every leader in the world will tell you they want.Yet, too few are willing to pay the price.Why is that?Because it requires sacrifice. Two key ways a leader grows is by: 1. Reading and Listening to Speeches, Talks, QA's and Messages From Leaders You Want to Emulate. My literary hero, F. W. Boreham, used to sit in courtrooms and listen to...

crucible/ˈkro͞osəbəl/A place or occasion of severe test or trial[1] I live just a few miles from Parris Island, South Carolina. It's one of two locations in the United States where the United States Marine Corps (U.S.M.C.) trains its recruits. Before a recruit can become a Marine, each recruit has to endure and complete 'The Crucible.' Here is how the U.S.M.C. desc...

When I was a fledgling youth pastor, not much older than the students I was pastoring, I bought myself a ball cap. It was white with two bright red bills. One pointed toward the left and the other toward the right. Emblazoned in large lettering across the front it read: "I'm Their Leader. Which Way Did They Go?"That message seemed so appropriate to me at the time. As a fir...

In his book, A Table in the Presence, Lt. Carey Cash, U.S. Marine Corps chaplain for the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment during Operation Iraqi Freedom, recounts how his battalion experienced God's presence and power in an amazing way during Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait and Iraq. When they were up against the wall, God came through for them time and time again. He ...

I vividly recall on one of my first trips to India, I was traveling alone, in the back of a taxi, on my way to meet people I did not know, being driven by a Hindu who spoke very little English, inhaling the incense he was burning in the taxi, in a city I had never been in before.It occurred to me that I may be headed down a dark alley somewhere where my friendly taxi drive...