If I had a mountain where I could carve the faces of those who have helped me most, here are the four I’d choose:

My dad, Jimmy DeVage.

Mike Baker, senior pastor with Eastview Christian Church, Normal, Illinois.

Drew Sherman, lead pastor with Compass Christian Church, in Colleyville, Texas.

Cal Jernigan, lead pastor with Central Christian Church, Mesa, Arizona.

Just as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln shaped our nation, these four have made me who I am. Their impact has been so great, in fact, I can’t explain why in just one blog post. So I’m taking two weeks to describe what they have done. As you read, you may think of your own mentors—or discover a strategy for being a mentor yourself.

Read More

How can a Christian leader reach men who are far from God?

I’ve been asked that many times, maybe because reaching such men has become a part of my mission. In fact two or three times each month I gather with guys in a neutral location just to hang out together. But my purpose is deeper than fellowship.

Of course it always starts there: loud laughter, rude kidding, good-natured insults. Soon it transitions to life and talk about work and wives and kids.  

After awhile I pose two questions for each guy to answer. I’ve been asking these questions in meetings like this for seven years, and I continue to see the remarkable results they bring. The questions:

Read More

It’s usually sad when a person is institutionalized.

When your aging grandmother becomes too confused to take care of herself, her children institutionalize her.

When your elderly uncle becomes too weak to live alone, your cousins institutionalize him.

When a child with a physical or mental disability can’t function in normal society, he or she is institutionalized to keep them safe and help them survive.

Institutionalization is about protection, not propagation; guarding, not going; building a defense, not mounting an offense.

Read More

Although some have been skeptical about rapper Kanye West’s conversion to Christ, I’m a believer. But Christian critics, especially on social media, have questioned his faith and critiqued his public statements about it. This is disappointing and damaging.

Kanye seemed to anticipate that other believers would be the loudest to doubt his turnaround. In “Hands On,” a song on his new album, Jesus Is King, the Grammy-winning superstar rapper asks, “What have you been hearin’ from the Christians?” The answer: “They’ll be the first one to judge me/Make it feel like nobody love me.”

When someone has a radical transformation, some Christians don’t know what do to with it. Could this be because their own transformation hasn’t been nearly so radical?

Read More