2025 is officially halfway through, and it’s beenā¦ well, it’s been a lot, hasn’t it? While I’m sure we all have thoughts and feelings on it all, I wanted to share a quick life and ministry update.
Family and personal life updates
As I shared elsewhere, it’s been a challenging season for our family. As much as I wish I could say, “But it’s all better now and here’s what God was doing,” the truth is, it’s not all that much better. The hard parts are still really hard. It’s hard to see what God is doing in some aspects of it. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 hits differently right now: “We areĀ hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed;Ā we areĀ perplexed, but not in despair;Ā persecuted, but notĀ forsaken;Ā struck down, but not destroyed” (NKJV).
But even so, there are some genuinely great things happening with us. We’re having a peaceful summer as we prepare to send our eldest to college. Emily has started a new full-time jobāher first since our kids were born. I work for a good company that treats me well. After taking two terms off to deal with family issues, I started back into my New Testament theology course with Redemption Seminary, and am at least on track to stay ahead of my mentoring sessions by a week. (And there’s another big positive life event I’ll be sharing about more soon.)
All this to say, God is good to us in the midst of a great deal of chaos. Which is to say, we’re experiencing life in a broken world.
Writing & Ministry
Faith Simplified has been out in the wild for a little over a month now, and although it hasn’t been lighting up the charts as far as I can tell, the response that I’ve seen so far has been encouraging. I’m continuing to pray that its readership grows. (One of the ways that you can help with that, of course, is by reading and leaving a short review on Amazon or another retail site.)
In related news, I’ve been hard at work on a video series connecting to each chapter of the book. You can check out the first one on the Trinity here:
After discussing with some trusted friends, the way I’m going to focus for the next season is with opportunities that allow me to take groups on a journey through significant ideasāthink more retreats and seminars. Right now, I’m working on something that (positively) reframes our mindset around discipleship, especially as it relates to the heart of what we’re doing. In the coming days, you’ll see my speaker page overhauled to reflect this focus. I’ll be sharing more about this idea soon as well. However, if you’re interested in hearing more about what I’m putting together early, and are interested in me sharing it with your community, send me a message via the contact form.
Finally, I’m in the early stages of writing what I hope will be my next book. I’m hard at work on the second of the proposal’s sample chapters. Once this is done, the whole package will be ready for my agent to share with publishers. If you’re inclined, please pray with me about this. This book has an important message for the church; Lord willing, it will find the right home.
A little bit of reading
In between research-oriented reading and assignments, I’m doing a bit of fun reading as well. In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton (a collection of essays I recommended recently) is next up on my list, along with Lee Strobel’s latest, Seeing the Supernatural, and continuing on with Ian Harber’s Walking Through Deconstruction.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
