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Have you ever had a “Holy Hangover?” “What is it?” you ask? Well, it’s a numb euphoria mixed with exhaustion and shepherding stress. For years, as a senior pastor, I used to hate Easter. Part of it was because every year our church would experience record lows in attendance on Easter – partly because 70%…

Young pastors are always asking me the question: “How do you find the time to do everything? You write sermons & blogs; video scripts & tweets; and then, somehow amidst all of this, you find the time to lead an organization?! How do you do it?” Truth be told: there are many days when I…

There is something almost magical about a written life plan. Years ago, at the beginning of each year, I would write down my “roles & goals.” Over time, I’ve started revising and expanding that plan every three months. In some ways, it’s a master plan for my year; but, it’s also a prayer journal. As…

It gets STINKIN’ COLD in Minnesota… like, the windchill for the next day is, honest-to-God, -45-65F degrees below zero. And for the record, it often gets way warmer here than most people think during the summer… often as hot as Florida (and maybe some of you nerdy folks can explain why that is??) But, I…

Here at Substance, we start every year with a season of fasting. Of course, nobody HAS to fast; but, when you understand what the Bible teaches on fasting, you’ll realize that we “get to” fast.  It’s actually an incredible opportunity. In both the Old and New Testament, God powerfully rewarded those who fasted.  Quite simply,…

Many people don’t realize that the New Testament teaches numerous types of baptisms. And as a result, they miss out on many of the supernatural opportunities that God intends us to experience. So, this last weekend, I gave a message on this (And if you missed “Elementary Part 3”, click here). But, in that message,…

A few years back, Minneapolis churches had one of those awful years when there were seven different snowstorms that happened directly on Sunday or the night before. Church cancellation strategies became a devastating weekly conversation. Not surprisingly, the snow almost killed our church financially because online giving hadn’t started yet. And most of our members…

It has finally arrived! Be sure to download our free electronic dance music project called SubstanceVariant! Ever since the launch of our congregational worship band Substance Input / Output (or I/O for short) there’s been a buzz around here. Our recent I/O music video literally had over 50,000 views within a week of releasing it…

As many of you know, Substance Input Output just released a brand new live music video for our song Hanging! Click here to see it. The last few months have been quite a ride. When the Substance I/O album first released, we climbed as high as 25 on the overall iTunes Charts! There was a…

Even though rap, electronic dance music (EDM), and r&b have completely dominated both record sales and concert revenue for 17 stinking long years, most “contemporary worship” churches do not even have a single rap or EDM oriented song in their repertoire. So, in part one of this blog series, I made the case that, if…