A CLCer asked: “What is the difference between praise & worship?”
Good question.  In my humble opinion, you’ve hit on one of those areas where preachers sometimes make more out of something than Scripture does.  By that I mean that I’ve heard teachings about this and read a lot of different opinions about this (Google it and [...]

Doing my devotions this morning using the thru-the-Bible-guide we give out at CLC each year, one verse really jumped out at me: Jonah 2:8.
Maybe it’s just because I’ve been in this Leadership Intensive for the last couple of weeks, learning about patterns of behavior in my own life, but I sure can see the truth [...]

Well, it’s been good for me to be in Denver these past 2 weeks for the Leadership Intensive at Quiet Waters ministry, but I’m sure glad to be getting on the plane in a little while to head back to Chi-town!
Can’t wait to see my wife & family (including the ‘boys’, Jasper & Pedro) and [...]

I’m officially welcoming those of you who signed up to participate in CLC’s 21 days of Prayer & Fasting this November 2-23.  Each morning during those days I’ll send you a brief devotional encouragement for the day here on my blog (you’ll be notified via email).
DISCLAIMER: my goal was not to increase readership of my blog, [...]

My devotions the last couple of days (using the same ‘thru the Bible’ guide we give out at CLC each year) have definitely spoken to me, so I thought I’d share some of what I’m hearing as I read:
1Chronicles 9 is one of those chapters that’s easy to ’skip over’ – all those impossible-to-pronounce names [...]

The response to yesterday’s teaching and the comments I’ve heard since have just confirmed for me how timely our meetings with Eddie & Alice Smith this weekend are going to be.  It’s only a 3-hour seminar on Saturday morning with the both of them at our Tinley Park campus, followed by Eddie ministering in South [...]

Part of my short time at home last weekend was spent at a wonderful fundraiser at CLC for the new ministry called “All For Him”.  The whole evening was terrific, with the festivities led by elders and longtime CLCers, Scott & Nannette Pachol, with special music from Ana Chavez and Crystal Petrovic (man, those girls [...]

Whew….I’m fried.  Either I got older this week, or there’s a huge difference between team-teaching with my wife while sitting on a stool and preaching solo while standing….because by the time I packed and drove to Midway again for the return flight to Denver (final week of my Leadership Intensive at Quiet Waters Retreat Center), [...]

I’ve been doing this feature each Friday for several months, but last week no one submitted a question…until this afternoon.  So here goes, just a little later than usual:
Someone who heard today’s message asked: why do you think that God allowed or had to allow Peter to see the vision with the “unclean animals” three [...]

Just finished my last session of the leadership intensive here in Denver, and I’m ready to board a plane and get home to my baby (and all the rest of you, too – of course)
And in the wackiest-yet announcement on this blog: I am now officially on FACEBOOK.
Still not sure what got into me….it really [...]