The Gospel message first reached my heart through a restaurant manager at the local Burger King where I worked. Mary Beth understood that God was not a part of her story; she was a part of His. She understood the same was true of me. She led me to the Lord when...
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who...
If you could ask a successful leader one question, what would it be? I found myself with that opportunity recently, riding in the passenger seat of a car next to a highly renowned businessman. Just the two of us, and 25 minutes of highway between us and our...
Anyone else grow up going to summer church camp? Every summer I spent a week in Hartford City, Indiana at Lake Placid campground, home of the sanctuary made out of a rusty old airplane hanger, sulfur-infused water that smelled like rotten eggs, and some of the...
The debate concerning the role and engagement of Christianity with the world has raged unabated for many years. It has reared its ugly head more than a few times since the time of Christ. With the rise of modernism, Christians broke into two distinct camps. Just like...
My wife and I spent a great deal of time naming our kids. We wanted classic, simple, sweet-sounding first names for our daughters, and so our girls were named Emma and Anna accordingly. With that naming strategy, we established an unintentional pattern (vowel,...
“What is the Gospel?” I think I’ve asked this question a thousand times over the last few years. I always expect some variation in answers; I just wasn’t prepared for so many to be dazed and confused by the question. “It’s the good news, right?” “Yes” I would...
My first job out of college was as a staff auditor for a CPA firm. As far as accounting firms go this one was pretty good, but it only took two busy seasons for me to realize this wasn't what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. One Christmas Eve, I found...
It’s hard to jump into a new television series in season 3. You have no context for the characters, why they act the way the do, how they’re connected to one another, or where they’re going. Perhaps you can piece together enough to get your bearings, but you...
VIDEO: Rob Ketterling Last month we were able to take Rob Ketterling, one of our awesome board members, on a tour of our much anticipated assisted living facility, Glasswater Creek of Lafayette. After a quick tour, he asked if he could shoot a quick video for the...
We were so excited here recently to launch this brand-new book, this resource, from The Stone Table called Missional Marketplace: Finding Your Everyday Work in God’s Eternal Plan and want to let you know that the paperback has been available for a little while now, but now the kindle book, and also the audiobook, of this is available now at Amazon and at other retail distributors. So, if you’re into audiobooks, I can actually read this book to you as you kind of go about your business. So, if you’d like to hear me read this book to you, you can download the audiobook right now as well. So, Missional Marketplace: Finding Your Everyday Work in God’s Eternal Plan, go pick it up right now and we pray it’s an encouragement to you.
Let’s talk a little bit about humility in leadership. You know leaders are leaders oftentimes because they are very skilled. They’re very talented, they are charismatic, they can draw attention, they have good ideas, they can cast vision, and sometimes that can cause leaders, including me, to begin to think they are the driving force. And so, as Christians, we know that we are called to humility; that arrogance doesn’t really partner itself well with the gospel and the gospel redeemed life.
Nothing like some valuable #teambuilding advice from Erik Cooper for your Monday morning!