Be strong and finish the task!

Sometimes you need to be quiet so you can build something worth talking about.

I’ve been pretty quiet here on Substack for the last year or so.

But a lot has been going on behind the scenes.

A lot of dreaming. A lot of planning. And a lot of building.

Because sometimes you need to be quiet so you can build something worth talking about.

Last year, after a profound encounter with the Holy Spirit, God began stirring my heart around three new assignments.

A new book: Man Enough: Answering the Call to Go First in a World That Loves to Be First (coming soon)

A new worship album: The Other Way

A new ministry: Marked By God Ministries, a nonprofit dedicated to helping ordinary followers of Jesus become so marked by God’s presence and power that they naturally leave His mark on the world around them.

Over the past year, I’ve been writing, recording, editing, praying, and preparing.

With all of this going on, I honestly started to feel overwhelmed. I believed that God was leading me into each of these three assignments, but I couldn’t make sense of how they all worked together.

One passage of Scripture that God used to both comfort and challenge me in those feelings of confusion, insecurity, and wanting to just push pause on everything was Zechariah 8:9-13, especially verse 9.

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Be strong and finish the task!

So that’s what I’ve tried to do. To be strong and finish the task.

There are a lot of good ideas, and even God-given ideas, that have never made it past the land of good intentions in each of our lives.

Starting strong is good, but nothing changes in our lives until we learn the art of discipline of finishing them.

So while I wanted to keep writing here, I also knew if I was to be strong and finish the task (or really the tasks), this season required my full creative attention.

Now I’m happy to announce that those projects are complete, or at least really close to it.

The Other Way, the first collection of songs I’ve recorded and released in at least a decade, released on July 31. I’d love for you to listen to it here.

Man Enough, my book on how God forms courageous and consecrated men, releases in just a few weeks.

And we’re currently in the launch and fundraising phase of Marked By God Ministries, with the Marked By God Podcast coming to YouTube this September.

So...

Are you in a sharing season, or a building one? Where do you need to be strong and finish the task that God has set before you?

As for me, I’ll be writing here much more consistently, while also sharing regularly on YouTube and social media.

To begin, I want to tell the story of how God led a seemingly retired songwriter and worship leader to record an album again at the age of fifty.

I’ll also share the story behind each song—how it was born, what God taught me through it, and my prayer for how it might strengthen your faith.

If you’ve been here before, thanks for staying.

If you’re new, welcome.

I hope you’ll join me for what’s next.