The surrendered man

Posted on March 20, 2025 by jwfisch

Surrender doesn’t mean passivity. Men who let go of control often step into bold, Spirit-led action. Just look at Peter stepping out of the boat (Matthew 14:29-31). The man who surrenders control learns that faith means acting even when the outcome is uncertain. It means taking Spirit-led risks. That might mean saying yes to an unexpected ministry opportunity, starting a new venture, or reconciling a broken relationship. Faith-driven action doesn’t promise comfort, but it always calls us toward God’s purpose.

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Control, and the courage to let go

Posted on March 19, 2025 by jwfisch

If you’re a man like me, particularly one shaped by evangelical culture, you’ve probably been conditioned to believe that control is a sign of strength. From an early age, we’re taught to take charge, stand firm, and rely on our abilities. The world says masculinity is measured by dominance and self-reliance — the macho, Rocky image. But Jesus? Jesus says something altogether different. Jesus talks about surrender.

What? Surrender? That sounds wimpy. Actually, it’s not wimpy at all. This surrender is not a relinquishment of responsibility but acknowledging that true power, wisdom, and success come from God.

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Avoiding that sinking feeling

Posted on March 18, 2025 by jwfisch

But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. Matthew 14:30

It had been Peter’s idea. After choosing common sense over adhering to Jesus’ request to feed a thousand people the day before (How were they going to do that?), Peter leaned on his heart’s understanding this time, that if Jesus said to come, His word would empower him to walk on water. So he called to Jesus, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”

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The Mainstreaming of Christian Culture

Posted on March 12, 2025 by jwfisch

The Jesus Movement was born out of a youthful countercultural movement that was against the Vietnam War, for civil rights, championed sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, and was not very kind to the older generation. So the Jesus Movement carried over some of that same spirit of rebellion while seeking a higher, deeper spirituality through Jesus that few were experiencing at that time. Much of the success of the Jesus Movement among those who were not Christians was due to the fact that Jesus Christ Himself in history was a countercultural figure. Hippies and druggies gravitated to Jesus because they had never seen Him in this light before. The biblical Jesus already stood for many of the values the counterculture had embraced.

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Two to remember

Posted on March 7, 2025 by jwfisch

Your Vanguard leadership team met as we always do on Thursday morning and our discussion led us to some conclusions that I think are important to share with the whole community today. These are strange and unprecedented times we are living in. We are a global community, but as illustrated by those of us living as Christians in the United States, I think we are all experiencing pressures we have not felt before in our lifetime. There are alliances between politics and religion that can easily lead to distortions of our faith should we submit to these pressures without scrutiny. So to help guard against that, we came up with two simple priorities to keep forefront in your mind and heart.

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Spring Training Weekend

Posted on March 4, 2025 by jwfisch

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Outside my window, across the street is the campus of a community college. Beyond that, probably about a mile away, is the airport with a plane taking off every minute or two. The airport building from here looks like Noah’s ark just landed on Mt. Ararat. I notice the birds are flying around chasing each other in pairs. It’s that time of year. Beyond the airport are the low-lying mountains of Phoenix, Arizona. You guessed it. It’s warmed up to spring training time and I’m here to watch three games by my Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

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A Call to Failure

Posted on February 27, 2025 by jwfisch

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A poem by George Matheson and commentary by Dave Roper, both of which embody the heart and purpose behind the 12-Steps.`

I had a call to a mission,

          Signed in my heart and sealed,

And I felt my success was certain,

          And the end seemed already revealed;

The sea was without a murmur,

          Unwrinkled its even flow,

And I heard the master commanding,

          And I was constrained to go.

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12 Steps to Heaven – Heads bowed, hearts wide open

Posted on February 25, 2025 by jwfisch

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I had a perfectly good draft for the Catch ready. Spent the weekend on it, fine-tuned it, even polished a sentence or two. Then, in a moment of questionable judgment, I shared it with my wife, Marti. This is always a risk. If I already suspect it’s not great, I secretly hope she’ll just nod and say, “It’s fine.” She never does.

This time, she called me out for overthinking it. Too much head, not enough heart. And she was right (as she often is). These steps aren’t about intellectual gymnastics. They’re about truth, raw and unfiltered. They’re about opening your heart wide enough for God’s light to shine in—and that kind of thing doesn’t happen in the cold, calculating corridors of the mind. That’s where justifications and excuses live. The head will argue its way into a comfortable little corner. The heart? It pulls you into something real.

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Sinners Anonymous

Posted on February 20, 2025 by jwfisch

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Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics (sinners), and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The world is populated with friends. This is because we are all sinners, and most people, deep down in their spiritual sensibilities, know this. So if we think of the Twelve Steps as applying to sinners instead of just alcoholics, then the whole world is a potential AA meeting, or in this case, it would be an SA meeting: Sinners Anonymous.

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Step Eleven: ‘Nevertheless’

Posted on February 19, 2025 by jwfisch

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Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Did you ever think that Jesus might have utilized some of the the Twelve Steps of AA? Not because He was following the steps of course but because they are true. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, He was well into what we know today as Step Eleven. It’s just that the rest of His group was asleep, so He had to go it alone. But everything He was experiencing that night in the garden is expressed in the eleventh step which reads: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God … praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”

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