Mark Batterson

Check out this bonus message from our Win the Day series! When it comes to goal-setting, problem-solving, and habit-breaking—GRAND GESTURES are key. They are defining decisions, calculated risks, and selfless sacrifices that double as defining moments. Grand Gestures are often the tipping point, the turning point. They are the point of no return. The idea is as old as Old Testament altars.

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our series based on his new book, Win The Day! How you do ANYTHING is how you’ll do EVERYTHING. The good news? If you do little things like they’re big things, God will do big things like they’re little things. The key is kaizen—an uncompromising commitment to continual improvement. It starts with a growth mindset, and there is no finish line. You keep setting stretch goals until the day you die!

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our Win The Day series! Almost anyone can accomplish almost anything if they work at it long enough, hard enough, and smart enough. The key is cultivating DOMINO HABITS—little habits that are high leverage habits. It starts with hacking your habits. The next step is making those habits measurable, meaningful, and maintainable. Then you employ two techniques—habit switching and habit stacking. The good news? If you do LITTLE THINGS like they’re big things, God will do big things like they’re little things!

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our Win The Day series! The obstacle is not the enemy. The obstacle is the way! “I have learned to kiss the wave,” said Charles Spurgeon, “that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” You have to learn the lesson that tough times teach us by asking a critical question: what have you come to teach me?

There are weeks when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen. This felt like one of those weeks. This weekend we catch our breath and collect our thoughts after a difficult week in Washington, DC. We are here for such a time as this. We are here for such a place as this. We stand in the gap as peacemakers, grace givers, and tone-setters. We believe God for racial reconciliation and political healing. We remind ourselves of who we are, where we are, and why we are as a church.

Dr. Mark Batterson kicks off the new year with a new series! If you want to change your life, you have to change your story. You can’t just flip the calendar, you have to FLIP THE SCRIPT. It’s the first of seven habits in Win The Day, and it’s a high leverage habit. In the science of cybernetics, there are two kinds of change. First-order change is behavioral—it’s doing something more or less. First-order change can facilitate a quick-fix, but second-order change passes the test of time. Second-order change is conceptual—it’s mind over matter. At the end of the day, your explanations are more important than your experiences. Long story short? The best story wins!

Covid feels a little bit like the GRINCH that stole Christmas for some of us, but we made a decision at the beginning of this ADVENT series—CHOOSE HOPE. It’s been a hard year in lots of different ways, but that is when and where and why we celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. This Christmas we remember the reason for the season: the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Savior. It’s a season to WORSHIP GOD like the wise men, SEEK GOD like the shepherds, and TRUST GOD like Mary and Joseph.

Dr. Mark Batterson concludes our Heaven on Earth series. You can get an A for EFFORT. You can get an A for TRUTH. Are you getting an A for LOVE? Many decades after the Ephesians receive a letter from the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John calls them back to their FIRST LOVE. How? One, REMEMBER. Two, REPENT. Three, DO WHAT YOU DID AT FIRST.

There are 59 one another statements in the New Testament. Two of the most significant are found in Ephesians 5—SUBMIT to one another and SING to one another. When practiced in two-part harmony, marriage turns into a melody. Marriage is an ICON—an earthly representation of this eternal reality called the Trinity. You have to make sure the ICON doesn’t become an IDOL. That puts an impossible burden to bear on your spouse because you’re asking them to do for you what ONLY CHRIST CAN. But with Christ at the center, marriage mirrors the diversity and unity of the Trinity.

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our series on the book of Ephesians. It takes moral courage to STAND AGAINST what is WRONG and STAND FOR what is RIGHT. It takes moral courage to SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER, to SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE. Living not by lies is refusing to bow to cultural idols or ideologies if they don’t pass the TRUTH TEST. It’s living according to your biblical convictions even if it’s COUNTERCULTURE. It’s RISKING YOUR REPUTATION for what you know is GOOD and RIGHT and TRUE. It’s DISAGREEING FREELY yet LOVING REGARDLESS. It’s a conscience taken captive by the Word of God and Spirit of God.