John Stonestreet | Craig T. Owens

April 2026
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Links & Quotes

June 22, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Fellas, the godly superwomen in our lives have unlocked our leadership potential. What are you going to do with that? You have only two choices: steward it or squander it. We only honor these godly women when we steward that potential well. Watch the full Father’s Day sermon here.

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

Dan Reiland addresses an important topic for busy leaders: busy work vs. real work. “Doing the easy stuff makes us feel good, doing the hard stuff helps other people live better. When we focus on our real work over busywork, we see intentional progress toward a focused vision or goal, rather than just checking things off a list.” Check out the four things Dan calls leaders to focus on.

“Because of what Jesus did for us through His life, death, and resurrection, we are no longer the worst things we have ever done. We are now the best thing God has ever done for us! That’s what God saved us from. That is our history. Now the question is, what has God saved us for? That is our destiny!“ —Jim Wiegand, in the Everything Begins With Purpose reading plan on YouVersion

A good reminder for pastors. “Call your own soul often to account; examine the temper, the frame, and the motions of your heart with all holy severity, so that the evidences of your faith in Jesus, and your repentance for sin, and your conversion to God, be many and fair, be strong and unquestionable; that you may walk on with courage and joyful hope toward heaven, and lead on the flock of Christ thither with holy assurance and joy.” —Isaac Watts

“The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does.” —Herbert Brocknow

“‘The fear the Lord.’ This refers to an awesome respect for God, which is a good thing. Without it, people are presumptuous before God. Those who do not fear God fail to respect His awesome power and righteousness, and they do not recognize the infinite distance between their sins and His holiness.“ —Quest Study Bible commentary on Psalm 128:1

“Our Lord did not ask us to give up the things of earth, but to exchange them for better things.” —Fulton J. Sheen

“Abortion advocates have long labeled humans in the earliest stages of development as ‘nothing but’ clumps of cells. This description is like calling Michelangelo’s David ‘a clump of marble.’ The only difference is that while art historians know every detail of this statuary masterpiece, scientists are still unlocking the secrets of the embryo.” John Stonestreet shares some astounding new research about the ways that the cells of a baby develop in a way that can only be attributed to an All-Wise Creator.

The unrighteous always seek to pull down those who hold to God’s righteous standard. How sad that they think it easier to pull the righteous down than to repent of their own evil. God sees this: He rewards the righteous who do not compromise and He punishes the unrepentant unrighteous who try to force the righteous to compromise.

Takin’ Him To Hollywood Boulevard

June 3, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

Jesus sent us and the Holy Spirit empowers us to take the Good News to all nations—all the streets (Luke 24:47-49; Acts 1:8)—even the streets of Samaria where we will have more differences than similarities.

There is one street that has infiltrated and affected every other street more profoundly than any other: Hollywood Boulevard. The constant bombardment of messages through movies, television programs, music, literature, and the arts is almost immeasurable.

I think Christians rarely stop to ponder how much of the culture on Main Street is influenced by the content from Hollywood Boulevard. Probably because so few Christians are involved in the artistic or creative communities.

Here’s what we need to remember: All of this creativity is God-given. The opening words in the Bible say, “In the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1).

We specific examples of God-given creative skills in:

Bezalel—Exodus 31:1-5
Oholiab—Exodus 31:6, 35:34
craftsmen and craftswomen—Exodus 31:6; 35:10, 22, 25
Huram—1 Kings 7:13-14
food administrators—Acts 6:3
Tabitha—Acts 9:36-39

(You can check out all of the Scriptures mentioned in this post here.)

In more modern times, we see notable creative people giving credit to God for their abilities.

William Shakespeare’s use of biblical themes—and even exact phrases—throughout his work is easy to spot. In the opening line of his last will and testament, he wrote, “I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, believing through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Savior, to be made a partaker of life everlasting.”
Johan Sebastian Bach, considered by many to be the greatest composer to ever live, placed “S.D.G.” on every one of his musical compositions, which stands for Sola Deo Gloria: only for the glory of God.

The apostle James tells us that every good and beautiful gift has come to us from God our Creator (James 1:17). And then this is my paraphrase of a similar thought the apostle Peter—

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks [writes, paints, composes, sculpts], they should do so as one who speaks [writes, paints, composes, sculpts] the very words of God. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

So, here are four thoughts about how we can take the Good News of Jesus to Hollywood Boulevard.

Create a beautiful culture in your home, your Main Street, your workplace, your school. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you answer the question, “What can I do so that the love and beauty of Jesus will be felt here?”

Use your creative skills—write poems, compose music, paint a picture, sew clothing, bring innovation to your job.

Support beautiful authors, musicians, moviemakers, painters, etc. Hollywood produces what they think will make money, so if you are supporting creators of beautiful things, they will produce more of those things.

Leverage Hollywood’s culture to talk to others about heavenly culture. Point out biblical themes, challenge the rationale behind unbiblical lyrics, etc.

“Christians need to ask themselves a few key questions to help us respond to the society around us. First, what is good in our culture that we can promote, protect, and celebrate? Second, what’s missing in our culture that we can creatively contribute? Third, what’s evil in our culture that we can stop? And fourth, what’s broken in our culture that we can restore?” —John Stonestreet

Don’t complain—create something better.

Don’t compromise—promote what is beautiful and edifying.

The Holy Spirit can empower us to take the Good News of Jesus even to Hollywood Boulevard!

If you’ve missed any of the other messages in our series Takin’ Him to the Streets, you can find them all here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

Links & Quotes

February 17, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Unforgiveness keeps our eyes on our offenders and off our God. Free yourself by forgiving those who have hurt you. You can check out this full sermon here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results.” —Chuck Yeager

As I have shared before, I am so impressed with the He Gets Us social media campaign! Some people are still trying to figure out exactly what this campaign is. Sean McDowell and his podcast partner Scott Ray had a great conversation with Ed Stetzer about this. Check out the video!

Some people have been critical of the He Gets Us commercials that aired during the Super Bowl, but I thought they were outstanding! This is a social media outreach designed and funded by some of the most biblically-grounded, evangelistically-minded people I know. It is a social media campaign. It is not designed as a sermon (which is why there are no Bible verses shown in the commercial). The idea is to get past the barriers and misconceptions skeptics have come to believe about Jesus, and then be enticed to go to the hegetsus.com website. It is at this site that the Gospel message is introduced and visitors are given Bible verses and other materials to go deeper.

John Stonestreet wrote, “Before it was the corporate creation of greeting card companies, it was a day to remember third-century Christian martyr Valentinus of Rome.” This post is a good reminder of what Christians really should be remembering on Valentine’s Day, as well as the higher definition of love.

“The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose.” —John McEnroe

Links & Quotes

January 13, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

We have added a lot of “stuff” to our prayer language, almost like God wouldn’t know that we were praying to Him unless we used these special words! Jesus made it simple by giving us two words: “Our Father.” I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“Immersing ourselves in the Psalms and turning them into prayers teaches our hearts the ‘grammar’ of prayer and gives us the most formative instruction in how to pray in accord with God’s character and will.” —Tim Keller, in Prayer

New sequencing of the Y chromosomes are creating problems for evolutions. When looking at the genetic code for the larger primates (chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan), not only are they found to be not nearly as close to human DNA as previously claimed, but even these primates are not as related as was thought. This is just more scientific evidence pointing to an All-wise Creator.

“We best take care of others when we are judicious about self-care. We only pour our lives out for others well over time if we have taken care of our own bodies and souls well in time. … Folly neglects soul care and leaves us empty, powerless to effectively serve others. We only have resources to constantly give out if we have been diligent to constantly receive in.” —Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied

Issac is an amazing foreshadowing of Jesus. Consider these aspects:

the wood for the sacrifice is on his back
the father placed the wood on his son’s back
the son was to be the lamb offered in sacrifice as God commanded

John Stonestreet and Dr. Glenn Sunshine write, “Constantine has been a controversial figure throughout Church history. Both the genuineness of his conversion and his impact on the Church have been consistently questioned and scrutinized. Many think that Constantine’s actions to tie the Church to the empire compromised the Gospel. Often, these arguments are based on a misunderstanding of what Constantine did and fail to consider what followed from the legalization of Christianity.” Check out more of the history and the impact of Emperor Constantine.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Christianity, church history, Constantine, Creation, Creator, Dick Brogden, DNA, evolution, foreshadowing, Genesis, genetics, God's Word, Isaac, John Stonestreet, prayer, Psalm, quotes, Tim Keller, video, world history. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

November 11, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

This is just one example of the power of a leader’s storytelling. Check the full conversation Greg and I had on The Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” —Benjamin Franklin

George Jeffreys was born with a limiting speech impediment, but with the empowering of the Holy Spirit, George and his brother Stephen led incredible Pentecostal revivals in England and Wales. They were said to be the greatest evangelists since George Whitefield and John Wesley. Someone asked Jeffreys how long a revival should last, and he responded, “Thank God, a revival started in my heart 30 years ago, and it has never stopped; it will never end.” He continued by saying, “As long as Jesus is kept in the front, and made the center of fellowship and blessing and unity, the revival will never end.” Check out this mini biography about his life.

John Stonestreet uses the example of C.S. Lewis’ Aslan to talk about how God can speak to us through our pain. John writes, “Pain is never the point of God’s plans, any more than it is the purpose of physical exercise. Never pushing ourselves to the point that it hurts means never improving our health. On the other hand, seeking pain is more likely to do harm than to aid our wellbeing. In and of itself, pain is not good, but it is meaningful. Pain indicates that something is wrong and needs to be addressed.”

“The best way to make a dream come true is to wake up.” —Dame Anna Wintour

Because of the extensive prayer, research, and work I put into my book Shepherd Leadership, I am frequently drawn to passages of Scripture that reinforce the idea of pastors as shepherds. I was meditating on Hebrews 5:2 the other day, and I shared some of my thoughts with some of my pastor friends.

Links & Quotes

October 21, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Put the good stuff from the Bible in your heart and mind regularly. When you do, the Holy Spirit can remind you of what you’ve studied and help you apply it to your daily situations. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“It pays to know the enemy—not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.” —Margaret Thatcher

John Stonestreet and Dr. Glenn Sunshine shared this, “The despicable and horrendous attacks by Hamas against civilians last week, including beheading children and kidnapping the elderly, seems a throwback to some distant, barbaric past of human history. We may have thought the world had long ago outgrown such barbarity, but it hasn’t. In fact, as shocking as it is, the kinds of atrocities carried out by the Hamas terrorists are the norms of warfare, at least throughout most of human history.” What changed this? Quite simply: a Christian worldview of just warfare.

“It is the quiet, steady appeal that moves the heart of kings. So then, the wise find ways to bring their cause visibly before the authority without being annoying. This is subtle art; it is not manipulation. This silent plea communicates to the leader a determination and resolve that appeals deeply to their conscience. Fools make themselves annoyingly heard; the wise make themselves dignifiedly seen.” —Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible study, Christianity, Dick Brogden, forgiveness, Glenn Sunshine, Gospel of John, government, Holy Spirit, John Stonestreet, Margaret Thatcher, proverbs, quotes, video, world history, worldview. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

September 23, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Questions engage people more than statements do. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had on The Craig And Greg Show. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

How should Christians engage with artificial intelligence (AI)? This is a very thoughtful and biblically-centric post.

The Bible records the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC and to the Romans in AD 70. For the first time, archeologists have discovered evidence of both armies in close proximity to each other. Yet again, archeology confirms the historicity of the Bible.

“In America, we have a tendency to worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.” —Lenny Esposito

“Young people are told, ‘You’ve got plenty of time, live a little, first,’ as if life ends after the wedding. The truth about marriage, however, is that it is, statistically, the single best predictor of long-term happiness. Making this even more important to understand is that for at least the last 20 years now, Americans have been steadily getting less happy.” Here’s how John Stonestreet shares this report from the University of Chicago.

T.M. Moore shared an interesting component of early-colonial American lawmaking: “Peruse the civil codes of the American colonies and you will discover a curious phenomenon. Frequently, colonial legislators drafted their civil codes by looking to the Old Testament Law of God.”

Dr. Tim Clarey said, “The global Flood also answers why dinosaurs were still alive and flourishing until the end of the Cretaceous. At that moment in the Flood, they were likely trying to stay on the highest ground available as waters encroached closer, week by week. As the dry land rapidly disappeared, many species herded together. This explains why varied types of dinosaurs were buried together at the end of the Cretaceous. The Flood’s tsunami-like waves eventually crashed over the remaining dinosaurs and entombed them in what’s called Upper Cretaceous strata.” Check out more evidence for the Flood that is recorded in the Book of Genesis.

Links & Quotes

August 26, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

If God seems distant, get your eyes off other things and put them back on Him. Check out the full sermon here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

T.M. Moore is in a series of posts about the Kingdom of God being revealed on earth. He wrote, “Jesus’ vision of the proximity of the Kingdom, therefore, was a threefold vision: The Kingdom is yet to come in all its fullness (there and then); nevertheless, at the same time, the Kingdom is unfolding in our midst (here and now); and thus every follower of Jesus Christ must make it their primary concern to seek and attain to more and more of the Kingdom of God every day of their lives. Then and there, here and now, more and more: This is how we must think about the Kingdom of God and our involvement in it.”

For many years, the theory of evolution has been unraveling. As more and more discoveries are being made, Darwin’s theory is becoming less tenable. John Stonestreet and Shane Morris wrote a recent blog post on this. Their article opens with this: “In 1973, evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote that “nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.” Almost 50 years later, an increasing number of scientists are asking whether evolution makes any sense in light of what we now know from biology.”

The most effective leaders consistently see the world through their teammates’ eyes. Check out this full conversation on The Craig And Greg Show.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.“ —C.S. Lewis

“No prophet or priest, king or great leader has ever told us to dare to address God as our Father, except Jesus! He is the only One who has taught us to call God, our Maker and Creator, Father. In the Old Testament, that relationship is mentioned only a few times (for example, Exodus 4:22-23; 2 Samuel 7:14). But in the gospels, it is mentioned 165 times. Jesus wanted to instill in us how important God’s fatherhood is. It is not a mere creed. It is a relationship that is central to our new life in Christ and essential in our worship to Him.” —Sobhi Malek

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 2 Samuel, apologetic, C.S. Lewis, Creator, evolution, Exodus, God's Kingdom, God's plan, Heavenly Father, John Stonestreet, leadership, quotes, Sobhi Malek, T.M. Moore, video. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

June 24, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

If your mental health is struggling remember GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. We need to look at all our inputs: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Check out this full message by clicking here. And be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.

In a post entitled The Quest For Immortality, John Stonestreet reminds us that we are more than just the physical bodies we have. He wrote, “Attempts to achieve immortality have continued (and continued to fail) right up to our own time. Medieval European alchemists believed they could produce ‘the philosopher’s stone,’ which would perfect the imperfect, turning lead into gold and making mortal life immortal. Enlightenment thinkers of the late 18th century rejected the mysticism of alchemy but continued to speculate about the means to attain physical immortality. Mary Shelley’s Frankensteinwas written as a cautionary tale about scientific hubris, in response to the more modern attempts of medicine and biology to preserve, extend, and improve life.” Check out this full post.

“You have to train your mind as much as your body.” —Venus Williams

“Peace is the normal condition and set of the soul of those who know the Kingdom’s presence in their lives. And only Jesus can give us the peace that overcomes the fears and troubles of the world, so that His Kingdom citizens may ‘be of good cheer’ [John 16:33] in all they do, come what may.”

“Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind.” —Adam Smith

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” —Anonymous

I really love the He Gets Us presentation of Jesus. Check them out! I used the example Jesus showed us of proper self-care in my book Shepherd Leadership.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Adam Smith, anger, God's Kingdom, Gospel of John, happiness, immortality, John Stonestreet, mental health, mind, peace, quotes, shepherd leadership, T.M. Moore, talent, training, video, work ethic. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

May 27, 2023 — Craig T. Owens

Your relentless pursuit of personal improvement becomes a better resume than anything you could ever put on paper! Check out the full conversation Greg and I had about personal development on The Craig And Greg Show leadership podcast. And be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.

T.M. Moore has a regular series of posts for pastors. This week he shared this, “In his training manual for pastors, Gregory the Great wrote, ‘There are some who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they are teaching the things which not by practice but by study they have learnt; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn. Whence it comes to pass that when the shepherd walks through steep places, the flock follows to the precipice’ (The Book of Pastoral Rule).” If you are a pastor, I encourage you to check out the Pastor To Pastor posts on The Fellowship Of Ailbe.

On May 22, A.D. 337, Emperor Constantine died. John Stonestreet wrote, “Many Christians think that Constantine was perhaps the worst thing to happen to the Church. They believe he made Christianity the imperial religion, thus leading the Church to compromise with pagan culture, marrying it to state power, and derailing the spread of the Gospel. The Church, they argue, was better off as a persecuted minority.” Please check out this post co-written by Dr. Glenn Sunshine that gives some better historical perspective than perhaps what you have heard previously.

The other day, a friend of mine was scammed through her Facebook page. Scams are everywhere, so you need to stay aware of the ways to protect yourself. This is a helpful overview from Capital One of various types of scams.

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.” —Duke Ellington

Jellyfish fossils point to a global Flood, like the one reported in the Bible. Because jellyfish are 95 percent water, they have to be buried quickly in order to be saved as a fossil.

J. Warner Wallace describes how Jesus arrived at the perfect moment in history. Once again giving more evidence to the historicity of the biblical accounts.

One of the most powerful missions sermons I have heard was preached by Dick Brogden:

An important warning from Axis—What it is: The Surgeon General has issued a warning on the dangers of social media for teenagers. Why the alarm bell is reaching a fever pitch: People have been wary of social media’s impact on developing brains for two decades—so why are highly-visible tone setters, like the Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association, issuing big, sweeping statements now? Part of it could be because we are getting more quality data on how social media shapes a young person’s brain. One newer study that’s been getting some buzz suggests that individuals who received their first smartphone at a later age have better mental health as young adults. Several big bills that aim to protect minors online will be voted on this year as tech giants face increased scrutiny over their safeguards (or lack thereof), for younger users. Kids growing up even a decade from now may encounter a completely different digital landscape when it’s their turn to learn about online literacy.