Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty, founding pastor of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, passed away quietly early Sunday morning after a battle with lymphoma, surrounded by his family and close friends.

I wish I had the opportunity to become a closer friend of Pastor Billy Joe. For the better part of our ministry lives, Cathy and I admired he and his wonderful wife Sharon from a distance. It was only recently that…

Categories: Church •General •Personal •Thoughts
Tags: northstar • church • america • mission • time • grace • building • courage • god • lives
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For the last few days, my thoughts have been full of all the blessings and opportunities God has placed in our midst at Northstar Church.  Each of these are things that make you go WOW… what a God we serve!

So I’ve tried to gather some of these thoughts and share them with you.

Categories: General •News •Personal •Thoughts
Tags: northstar • church • gospel • life • mission • grace • land • building • courage • construction
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So what is God saying to His church? How do we interpret the cultural and spiritual skies that are overhead?

Allow me to take you back for a moment to the turn of the last century when God was pouring out His Spirit in Topeka, Kansas and Azusa Street in Los Angeles. The two most influential men in this fresh visitation of God that began in about 1903 were Charles Parham and William Seymour. Both were mightily used by the Lord to re-introduce the baptism in the Holy Spirit, along with His gifts, to the church in America. Thousands and thousands of people came to Christ, were healed, set free from sin and filled with the power of the Spirit. This revival absolutely changed the spiritual landscape of America and beyond.

Categories: Church •General •Holy Spirit •Spiritual Formation •Thoughts
Tags: church • america • life • mission • time • power • grace • land • god • jesus
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“Then Saul took 3,000 of the best-trained men from all Israel and went to search for David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats.” 1 Samuel 24:2

There were three things we see in this verse that David encountered as a young leader in his quest to obey God. Rocks, wild goats and a king named Saul. Each has application to the building of a new work for God.

The walls are now up on our new facility at Northstar Church. It won’t be long now before…

Categories: Building •Church •Church Growth •General •Leadership
Tags: northstar • church • life • mission • time • grace • building • courage • god • times
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Every so often, I am going to lay down the “Friday 5.”  This is a short and to the point collection of observations I have about life, the church and people.  I’m not going to try to give you scripture and verse for everything since much of this will simply be my own opinions.  In other words, take them for what they’re worth…

Categories: General •Injustice •Personal •Thoughts
Tags: grace • courage • observations • friday • injustice • generosity
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In my 32 years of being a Christ follower, I had never completely understood the grace of God. I had sung “Amazing Grace” a thousand times, but couldn’t remember it being taught once. I had two things that seemed to prevent me from really experiencing full-on grace. First, I am an athlete. I still play hockey, football, tennis, basketball and ping pong—yes, ping pong. You keep score. You have winners and losers in every game. All that matters is how well you played—did you measure up…

Categories: Church •General •Personal
Tags: grace • humility • turtle • athlete
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