Last Day to Support Living Faith Community Church in Pittsburgh

Photo courtesy of Melissa Deming

It's simple really. I create beautiful things and use them to help plant churches. During April I've partnered with my friend Melissa Deming's church plant in Pittsburgh. You can read about Melissa and Living Faith Community Church here.

Photo courtesy of Melissa Deming

This year is flying by and April along with it. Tomorrow will be May 1! If you'd like to support what God is doing in Pittsburgh through Melissa and her church please order today (prior to midnight EST).

Photo courtesy of Melissa Deming

Fill your life with meaningful beauty and change the life of someone else as the Gospel is planted in Pittsburgh and around the world.

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How to Talk About Jesus: For Introverts, Newbies, and Failures @MissionalWomen

I grew up believing that there was only one way to proclaim the Gospel. It was the way of extroverts and evangelists and I was failing miserably at it. At the time I didn’t know I was an introvert. I also didn’t know there was more than one way to share your faith. The way I was taught was you sit down next to someone on an airplane or walk up to them in the grocery store and the following “conversation” occurs:

“Hey you, want to know about Jesus?” (Don’t wait for a response.) “Great! Because I’m a Christian and I’m here to tell you all about Him. You see, you’re a sinner. Here are all the verses that say so.” (Proceed to beat them over the head with the Bible.) “So, do you want to be saved?”

At which point they either joyfully (or fearfully) accept your invitation and you can add another notch to your Christian belt, or they walk away, mumbling obscenities, and you can count the experience as your expected “persecution.” You know, the way Christ, and the early church were persecuted.

Clearly I spent most of my life feeling intense amounts of guilt and shame over my failure to evangelize and convert thousands of people (of whom I just met at Starbucks).

Continue Reading at Missional Women >>>>>

For Your Weekend Reading: The Cat Lady of Highland Park

I received this book as a gift from the author but all opinions are my own.

Although this memoir is a 100% true account of Blaine’s youth, The Cat Lady of Highland Park reads like fiction. With a large enough cup of tea you can finish it in one lazy Sunday afternoon.

The first time I read Blaine’s memoir it was in its draft stages as a blog. Even though I knew what was coming, I was on the edge of my seat the second time I read it in it’s finished form.

It’s an easy read but if you’ve ever had anybody in your life even remotely like the Cat Lady it may hit a little bit too close to home. Throughout the book it will be hard to remember that what you’re reading is not some outlandish narrative but the author’s own true story of growing up in the Chicago suburbs.

Blaine’s is a story, like many of our own, of looking “outside for solutions to turmoil that can only be resolved within,” and it is fantastic. 

Get your copy here.