IIW Blog
What Church Can Be
Another quiet night’s sleep was shattered by the midnight alarm. The claxon went off in the small, New England lighthouse on the rocky Massachusetts coast. Another ship had run aground in the night fog on the rocks. The men and women in the small, dingy lighthouse jumped out of bed, pulled on their gear, and...Read the Post→
How to Live by Faith While Having Doubts
Having doubts doesn’t mean you don’t have faith, in the same way that having fear doesn’t mean you aren’t courageous. What?!? You can’t be courageous and fearful at the same time, can you? Yes, absolutely you can. Having courage doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. In fact, the brave person and the coward both feel the...Read the Post→
What Every Relationship Pursues and Protects
Every relationship pursues one of these two goals. Every relationship protects one of these two things. Either connection or distance. That’s it. Terrified of What We Desperately Long For The truth is, we all long for connection, for intimacy. We long to be fully known, accepted, and loved. And there’s the rub. We’re terrified that...Read the Post→
How to Get Out of Our Head
One of the biggest obstacles we’ve seen to people receiving healing is when they are all caught up in their own head. There are entire denominations that have intellectualized the Bible, believing the lie that the battle is all in the mind. Yes, there certainly is a battle in the mind, in our thoughts. But...Read the Post→
3 Mindset Traps that Sabotage Jesus’ Mission to Wounded People
As the church, we are Jesus’ hands, feet, voice, and heart to the world. We invite wounded people into transformational intimacy with our Savior by stewarding both truth and compassion. But there are 3 mindset traps that sabotage Jesus’ mission to wounded people. These 3 mindset traps are so insidious and sneaky we often don’t...Read the Post→
6 Ways to Facilitate God’s Healing Transformation in Wounded People
As God brings wounded people to himself, we as the Church need to learn how to facilitate the healing transformation God wants to bring. Often, this starts with just learning how to pray for people effectively, whether it’s after-service prayer, a phone call from a friend in need, or in a private, dedicated, ministry setting....Read the Post→
What to Do when You’ve Got Nothing
So I’m staring at a blank screen where this week’s blog post is supposed to be. And I’ve got nothing. My mind is just blank. So I pray, “Lord, I got nothing.” “So write about that,” came his soft, whispered, answer. “What?!?” was my bewildered response. But then I thought, “Ok, let’s go with that....Read the Post→
Why New Year Is in the Dead of Winter
It’s fascinating to me that our New Year here in Western culture occurs in the dead of Winter. I know other cultures’ New Year occurs at different times of the year, and that’s great. I’m sure God is speaking to all cultures with the timing of their New Year celebration, but I’m only qualified to...Read the Post→
How to Live through Painful Holidays by Doing a Gift Exchange with Jesus
When I was a kid, Christmas couldn’t come fast enough. I loved the big family gatherings, seeing my cousins, all the great food (especially my mom’s fudge), decorating the tree, and of course all the presents. I loved it all. And my birthday is in December. It was the best month of the year. Now,...Read the Post→
Why I Would Rather Live in Failure than Regret
At the end of the day, we all have a choice to make. To keep going or quit. Those are the only two options. We all can have many pivots along the way, where we quit something lesser to pursue something greater. But we never want to quit something greater to pursue nothing at all....Read the Post→