Spiritual

How to Establish a Devotion Habit

Posted on by Kurtis Hanni
brown book page

This was originally posted on my church’s blog. You can see the original post here.

As the new year rolled around, I did as many of us do and reflected on my habits. While I’ve always been good at consistently spending time in the Word, I’ve always struggled with establishing new habits within that time. At different points I’ve journaled, worked on scripture memorization, or started prayer journals but none of these things had stuck. Going into 2021, I wanted to start new things and really build on the habit of reading I’ve already started. But as I looked back, I realized the same goals in the past had led to burnout and falling short. Continue reading >

Politics

A Biblical Mindset for Political Conversations

Posted on by Kurtis Hanni

2020 was the election year of all election years. I know, speaking for myself, I’m ready for this all to be behind us. No matter who you are or what you believe, it seems during this season it’s hard to avoid political conversations. As a Christian, it’s my belief that we have to try even harder to do these conversations well. As representatives of Christ and the Church, our opinions can unintentionally be seen as representative of the group we’re apart of. That has got me thinking: how should we act and respond in these situations? Here are a few thoughts and pointers from that reflection.

Our country is not our religion

We hear a lot that America is a Christian nation. But if you read about many of our founding fathers, their faith was not a faith that we would understand or claim today. Despite this, the way America has developed over the centuries has resulted in a nation today that very much came to greatness and was formed alongside Christian cultural norms. Continue reading >

What I Read

How to Read More: What I’ve Learned Reading 100 Books in 2020

Posted on by Kurtis Hanni

Before 2020 started, I set a goal of reading 100 books. Then the pandemic happened…. and I still achieved my goal? Some would say the pandemic made it harder, some easier. I’m not sure how it affected my goal, all I know is I made it!

Over the years I’ve made a concerted effort to read. Back when I started this journey I thought there was no way I’d ever be one of “those people”. It started around 10 years ago when I decided I needed to track what I read. At that point I realized, while I’d never been a reader growing up, reading was one of the few reliable ways to grow once out of college. I started slow, between 10-20 books a year and by 2015 read 50 books for the first time. In 2017 I read 70 books and thought that pace was insane! So for the next few years, I oscillated between 50-70 books per year. Something clicked at the end of 2019… I realized I was only limited by my imagination on what I could do. So I took a step back and set my goal of 100 (also, I could have been motivated by my wife finally beating me and reading more books than I did). Continue reading >