By Brandon Lemons The Not a Fan series calls us to be fully-devoted followers of Jesus. This call is in response to Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23 – “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” I witnessed many fruitful discussions and changed lives when Friedens Church originally did this series in 2012, and I am seeing similar dynamics now, which is exciting. That being said, there are unintended consequences that can resu

By Brandon Lemons Apathy is the feeling of “blah”; It is when we lack the motivation to do something important, yet we don’t really care that we lack motivation. This is an experience I have personally felt in recent years (not all the time, but definitely more than once). I have also witnessed it with increasing frequency in individuals, groups, and society since COVID disrupted our sense of normalcy in 2020. However, apathy is not new; people have long displayed apathy t

By Brandon Lemons When digging into Scripture, we can uncover beautiful nuggets of truth (while recognizing that the overall biblical storyline is glorious and grand). It’s like a miner digging for gold and discovering a huge gold nugget. To me, one such nugget is found in Acts 17. The apostle Paul is traveling through northern Greece, preaching the Gospel. Angry, jealous Jews run him out of the city of Thessalonica, and he ends up in the city of Berea. Acts 17:11 says,

By Brandon Lemons Each year during the six weeks leading up to Easter, Friedens has a season called 40 Days of Prayer. It’s technically 42 days, but we round it to 40, because 40 is more memorable and has a nice ring to it. The timetable of 40 Days of Prayer corresponds with Lent, which many churches observe as a way of preparing their hearts to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection. The focus of 40 Days of Prayer is praying daily for at least five people, that they will