I don’t quite know how to describe the Elie Wiesel event from this past week. Patrick’s recollection contains a great story.
The auditorium was at capacity by 6:30 p.m.–Wiesel didn’t enter the room until 7:20 p.m. When he finally entered, the entire room (about 950-1000) erupted in sincere applause. There’s something special about having a force [...]

Over two years ago, John Laster and I birthed a vision to the Rochester Church to begin a multi-site approach for reaching lost, disenfranchised, disillusioned, marginalized people.
That vision is now a reality.
Last week the leadership team finished sharing their life journey’s with each other (genograms).
Here’s a photo of most of the team celebrating this milestone.

One [...]

Bob Russell, former long-time pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky will be preaching at Rochester Church in all three services tomorrow. If you live in the metro area, come out to hear a man of integrity and passion.

The view of the local-church pastor can be quite depressing. Families torn apart. Indifference. Jealousy. Petty backbiting. Closed-mindedness. Racism. Apathy. Idolatry. Materialism. Insecurity. Loss of job. Generational sin. Lack of integrity.
Not always depressing . . . but the view is enough to make you . . . well . . . depressed. [...]

I just returned from our annual Rochester College/Rochester Church of Christ Urban Formation Week.

It was, to say the least, a great week. I’m worn out. 

I’ll write more in the coming days (I think).

For now . . . I’ll simply say this. Perhaps more than most places, Detroit is the ultimate paradox. There is an abundance [...]

If you want to be a viable Christian leader in the emerging postmodern world you have no other option than to practice what you preach. The days of Star Search Leadership (when people followed because the leader was slick or dynamic) are dead. And that’s a good thing.
Period.
Some churches are led by ministers/leaders who [...]

Serving a local church if full of failure and success. In fact, the failures often seem to outnumber the success stories by a good margin.
When God does get a hold of a persons life, it’s important to share those stories. In less than 8 months, Shaun Hover went from local skateboard legend with no purpose, [...]