Several years ago, when I was just beginning in ministry, I conducted a workshop at a women's retreat on the doctrine of vocation - and I was petrified. It was the first time I put together a comprehensive teaching session, the first time I delivered more than a 15 minute speech, and the first time I realized the value of having solid people to surround me when in a ...

I was recently confronted with a former version of myself. I spent last weekend at a reunion of former staff and campers at the Bible camp I attended for nine years and worked at for six. This camp is the place where I learned how to live out my faith. It's the place where I developed most of my most enduring friendships. It's the place where I discovered that I ...

She sat in the second row. Long brown hair. A high-school look to her, and yet, her eyes belied way too many journeys to fit into a 16-year-old time frame.

I was teaching a class about ministry and dark places. Not so much about ministry in dark places, but about the darkness we and/or our spouses bring with us into ministry. I started the hour by saying, "Unfortunately, ...

If it weren't too long for the allotted space, I would've titled this post, "Everything I Needed to Know about Leadership I Learned from my Son's Preschool Teacher." And after two years of watching Ruth Harkema, this phenomenal leader, at work, I'd mean it. Of course, I knew a thing or two about leadership before I saw this gifted woman using her ...

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ?I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt in You Learn by Living

No doubt hardships strengthen us. In my ...

Jeanne Stevens serves as one of the lead pastors at Soul City Church in Chicago, Illinois. Before starting Soul City Church, Jeanne was blessed to work with Willow Creek Community Church for 11 years as well as North Point Community Church for four years. She is an engaging communicator and leader committed to helping people live and lead from their soul. Jeanne is the author ...

One of the great foilers of good intentions is "overwhelm-paralysis." The engulfing wave of global suffering can immobilize the most ardent leader. Gary Haugen, in Good News About Injustice, writes, "We feel like deer frozen by headlights . . . Instead of energizing us for action, the overwhelming injustice in our world actually makes us feel numb."

All ...

If you're a mother, you can relate: Between caring for kids, managing the house, and tackling work or other responsibilities, the idyllic quietness of heart and deep communion with God we long for can seem like a mirage, a perpetually unattainable goal. Real life with real kids is seldom quiet, and dedicated moms are hardly ever alone. For us, even using the bathroom ...

If I were to think of myself as the model godly woman, I'd picture myself sitting at the table in my breakfast nook, steam rising from the fresh cup of coffee in my hand, reading my study Bible and Beth Moore book by the rays of the early morning sunlight that stream through my windows, the faint sound of birds chirping in my flower-filled yard.

As I've struggled ...