Danielle Strickland once told me of an interaction with a "running friend" she had made. After developing a good relationship over time, and getting close to "winning" her new friend to Christ, out of the blue her friend asked her: "am I one of your 'projects?'" Danielle said it was a wake up call when she realized people are not "our projects." What is it about us Christians that causes us to think we can make people our projects and not really care about them as friends (an

We are known by a variety of "titles." These titles represent things we do. For instance, I am a Dad, spouse, musician, officer, friend, man, blogger, teacher, Rays fan, son, boss, etc. You may know me by one of these titles, but each is only a facet of what I do, not who I am. If you ask "Who are you?" these titles by themselves actually tell you very little. They may even conjure up inaccuracies based on what you understand a particular title to mean to you. It depends on w

Perhaps "fraternization" isn't really the word I want here, but at least it should get your attention. What I'm referring to is how leadership relates to those they lead. When I think of fraternization, I think of the military. I picture uniformed leaders with lots of brass on their shoulders (or at least a high rank) relating to the rank and file soldiers. Fraternization doesn't have a good connotation, for it brings to mind a leader relating to a lower soldier in ways that