I’ve been a missionary to Russia since 2007, and I was in Virginia in March to reconnect with the city that gave me my start in ministry. I also lead a seminar called RealTalk. The workshop provides us with a key missing dynamic to every God-given dream in our lives… dreams for our children and family, dreams…

This past spring we announced a citywide art competition, the idea for which God gave me to help foster vision for the city as a whole, under the reign of Christ. The call was simple: portray St. Petersburg as God sees the city. To help, I wrote a document and made a presentation during a…

I’ve been musing a lot lately on this, and wanted to get my thoughts out, and maybe even get some feedback on them as well. I wonder if most Christians don’t see how insidious this tendency is, even as they lam-blast liberals and others as ungodly. What am I talking about? Here is how the…

We held the second in a likely series of meetings this month with the assistance of a Belgian missiologist that does not live here, but with whom I resonate deeply. The first, last year, was about trying to understand the cultural nuances here that help or impede the Gospel. This year we took the idea…

I got invited to a conference this month by an odd-sounding group who call themselves Mentologists. But the topic was so interesting and relevant that I had to give it a go. The entire two-day event was devoted to the subject of trying to understand the Russian mentality. As a person devoted to trying to…

We generally go away for a weekend retreat twice a year. This fall my vision was to for the first time take with us several new people who have been slowing gathering towards us in ministry – volunteers, students, and leaders of a the “satellite” ministries that are under our umbrella. But frankly, it’s been…

This past month I lost my father to lung cancer, diagnosed less than three weeks prior. I had the privilege of speaking at the memorial service. But this was a moment I had been thinking about for an awfully long time.  Back in 2004, I got the inspiration to write a eulogy for Daddy that…

Here is a section of my recent newsletter that didn’t make the cut. My editors thought it was a little gross for most people’s tastes. So I’ve preserved it here. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. So how many of us stay in our…

Although I am far from an expert, I have taken some interest in the spiritual history and destiny of St. Petersburg, just as I used to do so when serving in Richmond. Here is a document that I wrote a few years ago that I hope to expand as more people can join me in…

We held a seminar this month that almost didn’t happen, and that until the day before I didn’t even care to do. In this seminar, I didn’t teach for more than 5-10 minutes of the 8 hour day, but it was probably the most transformative seminar we have ever offered the community. Its genesis was…