All Resources
Small Group Open Chair Model
Whenever possible and healthy for the group, we encourage groups to maintain an “open chair.” This means that the group fosters an attitude of openness to newcomers and maintains an environment that would make a newcomer feel welcome. The group does not need to be...
Who Should I Date?
In this episode, the LDI Crew tells you exactly who you should date! NOT. Instead the team discusses all things dating, including wisdom in how we think about dating,...
Why We Fuss: And the Shocking, Unfair Power of God’s Provision
My favorite time of day is early morning. That might put me in the minority, but I look forward to that first sip of warm coffee as I sit in my little corner of the couch watching the light stream in through the windows. Now, on this side of having kids, my mornings...
How Do We Worship on Easter?
In less than a month, we will be celebrating Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I didn’t grow up with a strong Christian foundation. I’d overhear comments at church about special days, services, terms, and theology and wonder about their significance. What is Lent? Or Ash...
Rhythm
Rhythm. As a musician, I hear rhythm everywhere I go. Rhythm is found as I practice songs for Sunday services on my guitar, the oscillating sound of the blinker in my car when I turn left or right, the song of the birds returning to sing in spring time, and even in...
Better Wine
You may know the first miracle Jesus performs publicly is at a wedding when he turns water into wine. What’s less talked about is why it matters today. The passage is John 2:1-12, and to really understand what it has to say, it’s helpful to first take an inventory on...
Gender Roles
The conversation surrounding gender roles in the church has been an interesting one for me to consider because of the tension I’ve wrestled with regarding this topic, especially as a wife and also a woman who works in ministry full time. Until this year, I didn’t...
Small Groups With Missionaries
As Hope Community Church small group leaders we see our group members experience many major life events and changes. This document contains helpful tips for leading someone called to overseas missions. Please note a few things before reading this document. First,...
Breaking Shame Narratives
Shame. It’s a heavy word. One, when spoken out loud you can feel that “shame-like” feeling wash over you. It’s a feeling many have experienced and wish they hadn’t. Shame is a feeling that we, as God’s image bearers, weren’t meant to experience. Yet, because of the...
Killing Sin: Confession, Contrition, Community
“Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.” ― John Owen, The Mortification of Sin Recently someone sent me a video of a leopard in India caught on camera...
5 Lessons I Have Learned From My Time Overseas
As the great theologian Bob Wiley said so many years ago, “I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful… I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful… I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful…” For those of you who have not seen What About Bob? (spoiler alert? Not...
Silence and Solitude
I don’t think anyone in the western world would argue with the following statement: “We live in a time of tremendous and immediate access to knowledge, comfort, and entertainment.” For those of us that are followers of Jesus, the following statement is also true: “We...