Our Purpose

When Bill Pinkney sailed solo around the world in 1992—taking the hard route around the perilous Great Southern Capes—he did it for a higher purpose. His voyage was to inspire and educate children. That included students at his former inner-city Chicago elementary school. His goal? To show how far they could go by studying hard and making a commitment—the word he chose in naming his boat. When Bill takes schoolkids on the water in Commitment, he says, “They&rsquo…

Sometimes God calls us to participate in His mission in unusual or even confusing ways. These situations might ask us to step outside of our normal manner of doing things and take a risk, give sacrificially, inconvenience ourselves, or even suffer for the sake of others. Have you ever felt called to go beyond your routine to do something extraordinary? For some Christians, this might look like answering a call to move overseas and share the gospel with unreached people.…

When you think of what Desolation looks like, picture a barren desert. Desolation wants to make everything a wasteland. So what is the opposite of a wasteland? Eden! The paradise of God, our first home, with all its lush, glorious beauty overflowing here, there, everywhere! If you follow the flow of Scripture and human history, you can see that our enemy wants to make everything a wasteland, and God wants to make everything a restored Eden. When it comes to the resilience…

If you follow Jesus, you have likely heard the phrase “God’s will.” It’s often mentioned in the context of His having a will for each believer—or of our doing His will, walking in His will, and the like. If we love the Lord, then certainly we want to obey Him (John 14:15). But let’s take a look at some of the reasons we might miss His plan for our life. Handling God’s Word Improperly. When our days become jam-packed with commitments…

In 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself Emperor of the United States. Norton had made—and lost—his fortune in San Francisco shipping, but he wanted a new identity: America’s first emperor. When the San Francisco Evening Bulletin printed “Emperor” Norton’s announcement, most readers laughed. Norton made pronouncements aimed at correcting society’s ills, printed his own currency, and even wrote letters to Queen Victoria asking…

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I heard these words from Dr. Charles Stanley. “Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.” He was a beloved follower of Jesus and someone that mentored me through many years as a young man. Some of those years represented the most difficult season of my life. I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Stanley when visiting First Baptist at the old church location on Peachtree in Atlanta. He was a gentle soul displaying…

Do you remember Top Gun: Maverick’s climactic scene?As Maverick flew away from enemy territory, his F-14 clipped the roof of a building and lost its front landing gear. With the odds stacked against him, Maverick, and his co-pilot Rooster, engaged in an epic dogfight with two enemy jets. After some heart-stopping maneuvers, Maverick and Rooster managed to take out one of the jets, but the other one seemed to be chasing him down with no escape in sight. Maverick knew…

A mentor of mine just released a book entitled Sentient Strategy – How to Create Market-Dominating Strategies in Turbulent Economies. In it he states that we are facing a “new reality”, and that reality is the need for agile strategic decisions and pragmatic views of the future. If you’re paying attention at all, you realize the world’s business and economies have been turned on their heads subsequent to COVID and the implications are.…

Listen In 2020, Twitter user @AlexJoestar622 set the internet on fire when he posted a photo of what looked like a human-size bat in the Philippines. While many were quick to call the photo fake, it's since been confirmed to be real and shows a giant golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus). Also known as a golden-capped fruit bat, this endangered species is one of the largest bats in the world and is endemic to the Philippines. Classified as a megabat, these…