Hello, friends. I'm Aaron, a common pastor, church planter, and sometimes author. My greatest joy is co-creating with the King in his ongoing, unfolding Kingdom work. This is where I process some of what I’m learning, unlearning and relearning. Welcome.
I am an expert in self-doubt.
I could teach a masterclass on the subject. If there was a market for people who were willing to pay someone to teach them to believe in themselves less, I could make a lot of money.
On April 20, 1994, Mauro Prosperi came limping out of a desert in Algeria half-dead. Just a week and a half earlier, he’d set out on the Marathon des Sables, a 155-mile race through the Sahara Desert. On the fourth day, a violent sandstorm threw him off course. He’d spend the next ten days fighting for his life. When he finally emerged, he had severe organ damage and weighed less than a hundred pounds. It would take him two full years to recover.
His feels like a story I can strangely relate to.
In my years of pastoring and church planting, I have found something of a rift between varying Jesus tribes that often goes unspoken. The rift I am referring to runs between those churches and movements that primarily focus on that which happens in the community of God and those that primarily focus on that which happens through the community of God. However, if we are going to see a fresh move of God in our lifetime, we cannot afford to focus on one and not the other.
Roughly a decade ago my wife and I found ourselves leading a rapidly growing church plant, adding additional services and staff, on the cusp of launching our second campus, and on the receiving end of lots of applause and attention. What most didn't know at the time was I was dying inside.
The older I get and the longer I serve in ministry, the more convinced I am that while charisma can be a gift, it can also be both a liability and a limitation to those who seek to walk and lead in the way of Jesus.
Summer isn’t a throwaway season for ministry.
It’s prime time for some of God’s most exciting work.
God doesn't need your power.
All He needs is your willingness.
And in those moments when you feel powerless it turns out you are perfectly positioned to be used by God.
God’s glory is a big deal. And every now and then God’s people got a little glimpse of it. But the prophets spoke of a day when God’s glory would finally be revealed to all.
This is what it looks like when God’s glory goes low.
From healthcare, to education, to history, to science, to art, to human rights, Jesus, the light of the world, and his movement of light-bringers have impacted human history and human present in a way that no other person or movement has.
What is that? That’s the light breaking in.
In acknowledging Jesus as the great "I Am," we must come to terms with the fact that Jesus is not an idea to be pondered or a knickknack to be admired on our shelf of religious relics and responsibilities.
He is the very face of God.
This Advent season our church family is spending each day centering ourselves in the person of Jesus together by reflecting on the names given him by scripture. If you are looking for a way to resist the noise and distractions this Christmas season and actively abide in the person of Jesus, I want to invite you to join us.
It’s not hard to find the negative in just about everything. Anyone can do that.
It takes considerably more work to find and celebrate that which is beautiful, and far more still to actually step out and create that something. That takes risk and courage.
"If you don't believe demons are real, try planting a church. You won’t get very far in advancing God’s kingdom without feeling resistance from the enemy." - Darrin Patrick
Some days I like to think I'm like John or Peter. But if I'm honest, most days I think I'm a lot more like Judas - doubtful that God can be anywhere near as good as Jesus suggests and tempted at times to sell out for a measly bag of silver.
Today I praise God that even the Judas' of the world are invited around the table of the lamb.
In a time when many of the old ways of traditional church in the West are found less and less effective to reaching emerging generations, perhaps we could use some more rule breakers to help us imagine a new way forward. Perhaps some some righteous rebellion is precisely what the church needs.
“There’s nothing new under the sun.” Go ahead and admit it. You’ve not only heard this phrase, you’ve said it. Perhaps numerous times. It’s a common one in our Christian vernacular. So let me go ahead on the record and say this: I don’t like this phrase. More importantly, I don’t think it’s true. I think Solomon was wrong.
If the past few years have revealed anything, it’s that we are not well. We never were. In this season the human heart is simply being exposed in our country for what it is: dark and hopelessly broken apart from Jesus. Keeping or swapping out presidents, political parties or kingdoms of this world will not change this. It’ll just rearrange the details.
Though celebrations have at times been hard to come by, one of the things this past year has created in me is a deep longing for more of Jesus.
I want more of the work of Jesus. I want more of the person of Jesus. I want more of the presence of Jesus.
I want all of it. And I want it for you too.
