If we want to see real, long-term change with racial injustice, our passion must be undergirded by a robust theology. We must be gripped by a gospel revelation that goes deep into our core. This is the only thing strong enough to carry us beyond momentary passion and protests. Today’s podcast features part one of a time-tested sermon in which Pete explores God’s plan to create a new international family. Exploring Ephesians 2:1-11, we are introduced to God’s vision for the church – a revelation so powerful that it dismantles complacency and burns through the sin of racism.  

 In this podcast I address one of the most important tasks before us as leaders – declaring the certainty of God’s future in the face of the multiple crisis facing our people, our nations, and our churches. Jeremiah had a fifty to sixty-year ministry during multiple times in his day – from the failed invasion of the Assyrians, to the total destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, to Israel’s exile in Egypt and Babylon. Jeremiah could see through the sham of their external conformity to God’s ways without a deep internal change of heart. He also saw through the false priests and prophets who told the king what he wanted to hear and filled people with a false optimism about the future. He preached judgment for their sin and great hope– that God wins even when it appears he is losing. God has a plan and never stop doing good to his people,. Read more.

The global coronavirus pandemic, the global outrage over racial injustice, and the global recession have exposed us, and put pressure on us as the church, in uncomfortable ways. We must change, for example, the scorecard for success from attendance and large gatherings, to a deep transformational discipleship for every single person in our church. But this deep transformational discipleship must start with us. This podcast is my passionate plea to respond to God’s invitation to take your next steps to deepen your relationship with him, integrating more deeply into your life, practices such as silence, solitude, Scripture, Sabbath-keeping, spiritual companions, and healthy self-care. I am increasingly alarmed as I talk with pastors and leaders. We are busier, more anxious, and less anchored than before these crisis – not less. Yet I believe God is inviting us to offer a new kind of prophetic leadership to those we lead out of a deep place with. Read more.

In this podcast, I address a fundamental discipleship issue confronting the church today in the midst of the global awakening around racial injustice – grief and loss. Scripture offers us a radically different approach to suffering than the world. Instead of avoiding or numbing our pain, God invites us to embrace our grief and losses directly, feeling them, wait on him with them, and allow new things to be birthed out of the old. Jesus shed his blood to birth a world-wide, multiracial, multicultural family that transcends all national, social, racial, economic barriers. This breaking down of hostility and hatred between races, cultures, genders, and social classes was one of the central tasks of the early church. It is one of ours as well. One key to get there, however, is embracing the grief and loss of racial injustice – both now and through history. When we follow him in this painful path, he. Read more.

In the wake of George Floyd’s death, Americans and people around the globe are expressing outrage and grief on a level I’ve never seem in my lifetime. It appears to be a moment in which God is doing something significant in the world and the church. In this podcast, I offer one of the major contributions of EH Discipleship to this issue–the genogram as a tool to unlock the roots of generational racism in our families, cultures, countries, and institutions. Geri and I spent over 17 years developing this tool because of its unique power to help us get at roots in our discipleship with and for Jesus. I look at my particular genogram from the perspective of how issues of race were handled, and what was passed on to me growing up as an Italian American. I then talk about my journey as a new believer and, eventually a pastor, with bridging race,. Read more.