In the evangelical circles where I first cut my teeth as a Christian, hit-and-run evangelism was a sore topic. A mission team might swarm into town, preach the Gospel, hand out tracts, and pray with new converts . . . …
Tapping into an After-Christmas Spirit
The presents have been opened. The cards have all been sent and filed. We laughed, we hugged, we ate roast beast. For many of us, the decorations have already come down. (Of course in the Grayson household, they stay up…
Ambassadors of Jesus
This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven… (Matthew 6:9-10) We spend Advent and the Christmas season preparing ourselves…
Blown Away! Snowstorm Deepens Our Faith
It’s funny how the simple things can leave you flat on your face. One time it was my boots. Another time it was a job. This last time it was the recent snow and cold snap that jarred me. God…
Shooting to Be the Star of Wonder
On January 1, I watched (on TV) crazy, nutty people take the Polar Bear Plunge and throw their half-naked bodies out of the 16 below zero air temperature into icy cold waters through a hole that had been chiseled into…
The Last Best New Year’s Resolution
I suggest making one last resolution for the New Year: stop making them. Within the first month, most people have broken their resolutions anyways. Ask any health club manager about the January spike that levels out by February. You don’t…
Waiting for the Next Big Thing
Today is the First Monday in Ordinary Time. A beginning, but not one that we really celebrate. Compared to the intensity of Advent—the color changes, the music, the familiar sermons about taking time for Advent—or the outright and overflowing joy…
Catholic Pop Culture of 2013
There are many vulgar and immoral things in today’s popular culture. As a good friend of mine said, “Television today is a moral cesspool.” I therefore understand the impulse and reaction of many who choose not to spend their free…
Pressed into Service
”Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles,” (Matthew 5:41). Your son comes home from his first day of Early Childhood all excited, “Guess what, Mommy, we get to go on all the…
Micro-Evangelization
A new year brings with it a chance to reflect on what went well in the past and what can be better in the future. If our goal is to evangelize our culture, how can we do it better than…