Category Archives: Uncategorized

I have the privilege of investing in the lives of 6 other pastors twice a month.  They are scattered to the north as far as Marquette, MI in the Upper Peninsula and to the south in Detroit. The beauty is that we don’t leave our offices but collaborate via Zoom video conferencing.  This could never be a substitute for biblical community, but we really are able to cover a lot of breadth and depth in a short period of time together.  I look forward to connecting with them in the flesh next month.  In the meantime, I am exceedingly thankful for the technology that makes our virtual meetings possible.

Part of my childhood dies today.  That may sound a bit overly dramatic, and perhaps it is, but Marty Brennaman, the voice of Cincinnati Reds baseball, retires today after 46 years.  It’s the same voice that would put me to sleep while growing up in Northwest Ohio.  It’s the same voice I would attempt to decipher through the static of my AM radio when living in Northern Michigan.  And it’s the same voice I would hear clearly through the internet while living in Southern California. I have never known a summer without the voice of Marty Brennaman.  Lord willing, there will be many more summers of Reds baseball, but they won’t be quite the same.  Thanks Marty for being the soundtrack of so many summer nights.

Apparently I missed this whole National Daughter Day thing.  Shouldn’t there be some kind of notification on my phone or something?  So blessed to call Anna Zaucha my daughter.

“When we think of unreached people groups, we envision intrepid missionaries taking the gospel to a place where the name of Jesus has never been spoken.  But many American pastors are faced with a similarly daunting task:  to bring Jesus to a place where He is admired but not worshiped, where God is a grandpa in the sky, where many of their congregants are “good people” who don’t know they need to be saved.  Like their New Testament counterparts from Matthew 7, they know religion, but don’t realize that their religion is the very thing from which they need to be saved.” (pg. 30)

(I will be in big trouble for this  picture from more than a few years ago, but it will be worth it).  Anna is now 2 weeks past the surgery to deal with thyroid cancer by having the thyroid removed.  She had her follow-up appointments yesterday and everything looks very encouraging. She has been a trooper, and is back in Milwaukee and finishing out her summer internship.  I have had many reasons to be proud of Anna over the years, but to see her faith in action in dealing with this trial has been such a blessing.  Thanks to all of you who have been lifting her up in prayer.  God has been an ever-present help.

Loved this book by John Ortberg.  He reflects on conversations he had over the years with Dallas Willard and the lessons learned in regard to care for the soul.  The message is much needed in this culture of hurry.

“Our soul is like a stream of water, which gives strength, direction, and harmony to every other area of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exuberant in all we do, because our soul itself is then profusely rooted in the vastness of God and his kingdom, including nature; and all else within us is enlivened and directed by that stream. Therefore we are in harmony with God, reality, and the rest of human nature and nature at large.” — DALLAS WILLARD
IN RENOVATION OF THE HEART

Ortberg, John. Soul Keeping (p. 12). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

I simply can’t get my mind off this chart.  I hope that it will have the same impact on you.  It is from Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden.  The point is to contrast evangelism (addition) with discipleship (multiplication).  In essence, if one person were to invest in making 2 disciples each year (VERY DOABLE), and then those 2 disciples would do the same, in 16 years there would be 65,536 disciples.  By contrast if 1 person were to lead 365 people to faith each year (would certainly be wonderful!), the result after 16 years would be a much smaller net of 5840.  2 disciples a year.  WHAT. ARE. WE. DOING?  How can we help each other fulfill the task of making disciples the way Jesus did?

A couple of months ago Anna was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.  The good news is that it was caught early, is slow growing, and is highly treatable.  Part of the treatment is that today she is having her thyroid and some lymph nodes removed.  She is currently in surgery and will spend one night in the hospital.  We have seen God at work throughout this journey, especially in that her treatment is at a wonderful medical center in Milwaukee where Anna  has been doing a civil engineering internship working on a parking garage at that facility.  Please keep her in your prayers today and in the days to come.