The Value Box being released soon. Read this prologue. There's a box on my desk. It's not fancy. Cardboard, about the size of a toaster, wrapped in printed paper on all six sides. If you didn't know better, you'd think I forgot to throw away a shipping box. But I've carried this thing into conference rooms, staff meetings, and church basements for the last couple of years, and it never fails to do the same thing. Someone picks it up. They turn it over. They read one side, then another, and...

In Grounded Fire, Duke Lancaster calls preachers back to a simple but urgent conviction: the text sets the agenda.

Years ago, I heard John Wimber say, “I’m just change in God’s pocket. He can spend me however He wants to.” I’ve carried that phrase with me for a long time. I find comfort in it. Not because I always agree with how He chooses to spend me. Honestly, there have been many moments when I would have preferred a different assignment, a different timing, or a different destination altogether. But there is something deeply grounding in remembering that my life ultimately belongs to Someone who sees...