The Way

Tim Hawkins is a wonderful comedian who is clean and funny. You will enjoy this video and if you don't it may be because you have not been blessed to have Chick-fil-a in your area. Enjoy!

Morgan, Sondra, Shelbi In my last post I stated that I was going to start mentioning some of those people who have had great influence in my life. Sometimes this is the one whom I have a tendency to not make such a big deal of in influencing my life, but I am able to remedy that now. Sondra Jean (Holmes) Turner is definitely "one-of-a-kind" and has the most influence in my life for the last 25 years plus. (How can you be married to a wonderful woman for that long and some of that not rub off on you anyway?) She is amazing. I am going to attempt to do a compare and contrast and then let you draw your own conclusions on how she has most influenced my life. She is black and white on issues.       I am pretty gray on many things She is organized.                               I am organized enough to get b...

I think I have hit that interesting age in life where many people who are younger than me, 20- and 30-somethings primarily, think I have wisdom. I am pretty sure that I do not have much, but my gray hair sort of lends itself to this whole "wisdom" thing. To be completely honest, I am a little flattered and a lot scared. I know I do not know much. I do have experience and get the opportunity to be around alot of folks in ministry and realize that I do have some influence in others' lives. What a responsibility. Turners circa early 70s It has also caused me to think about many people who have influenced my life in so many great and strong ways. I have talked about my dad and my mom in this blog many times and those two people obviously have influenced me the most. It is hard to believe that my mom has been gone almost 3 years ago and yet her influence in my life continues strong. Of course, my dad continues to influence me in so many ways. My brother, James, is almos...

A couple of blog posts ago I wrote about change and how I am okay with it, especially when it does not involve me. You can read it here if you are interested. Lately I have discovered that this new life that Sondra and I are leading is just that - change. But "the more things change the more they stay the same" , as the old saying goes. This transition in our lives is really, really good. It is strange and weird and we have by no means transitioned completely, but I am discovering some things I had not anticipated. I have more focused "free" time - our evenings are not filled with ball games, practices, etc. that centered around the girls' activities I have fallen more in love with Sondra. At the risk of sounding sappy, I knew all along how incredible of a wife and mom she is, but with more time not filled with activity, I find myself just longing to spend more time with her We have more time for one another. Heck, we even played backgammon the other nigh...

Busy is the key word for the last couple of weeks for me. I am convinced that I do not work any harder than any one else does, but these past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Last week I flew to Orlando for Rock the Universe hosted at Universal-Orlando and got to see many youth leaders who God is doing some great things through their lives and ministries. Our friend Todd also got us on the new Harry Potter ride and it was pretty awesome. Along with hearing some great bands like the Newsboys, Jeremy Camp, Toby Mac, Skillet, and others I got to do an interview w/ John Cooper from Skillet . Great guy with lots of energy. That is the two of us in the pic to the right. I got home from Orlando Sunday afternoon in time to start setting up for our LifeWay National Youth Worker's Conference . What a great time to host youth leaders from across the country and even had a young leader from Malawi. How cool is my job that I get to minister to youth ministers and encourage them? Incredib...

Saw this video again from Francis Chan and the way I too many times hold on to stuff that hinders me from being all that Christ has created me to be. Is it really right that I live life in balance? Or, is the Christian life designed to be an "all out" kind of life? I know the answer. I struggle with the action.

Most of us really like change as long as it is happening to someone else. When it comes to land in our own lives and in our own homes, it definitely takes on a whole new connotation. I am all about change, especially when I am consulting a church, leading others, and talking about how to get at it differently. I am little less enthused with change when it hits me square in the chest. And . . . change has hit me square in the chest. Sondra and I have been married for 25 years, have two incredible daughters and a not so incredible dog, but she is a dog and does not really count in this conversation. Change hit us last Thursday/Friday. Morgan is now a college student and has had the audacity to join her sister at Union (her sister left us two years ago). The house is quiet; we have to take care of the dog (scratch that . . . that is the same. It is their dog but we have always been the ones to care for that four legged beast); picking up the trash takes about half as long; laundry loads...