April 2010
19 posts
Stable much?
Woe to you who seek stability, for you would trade joy and fulfillment for control and an ever fleeting sense of security.
We’ve turned God into security. That’s what we seek.
We’ve traded shalom for avoidance.
We’ve traded joy for selective isolation.
You can plug up your ears and not listen to this, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
Please, please, please...
“Leadership is more an art than a skill.”
– Kennon Callahan
The Kingdom of God looks like...
In his Gospel treatise, Matthew starts with a boring genealogy. Or is it?
You can call me a nerd, but I find the genealogy intriguing and insightful. Here’s why: In a matter of 17 short-but-dense lines of Scripture, Matthew encompasses the Old Testament narrative and the context of the Old Testament covenant theology.
He places Jesus squarely in the Abrahamic lineage and, perhaps more...
how does God say "I told you so"?
What happens when God gets tired of saying “wake up! pay attention!”?
What does he say next?
When this happened with the people of Israel, God used the prophet Joel to convey his message that time, after time, after time he had been warning them of what would happen if they didn’t pay attention.
What does it look like for God to say “I told you so”?
Hear...
fearful
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. /proverbs 1.7
What does it mean to fear God?
Or maybe our learning should begin somewhere else: What does it mean to not fear God?
Does it mean that we have no fear? Or that our fear is focused on something less?
What do we fear instead?
Some of us are afraid of ourselves. We’re afraid of dealing with our crap so we just pretend.
Some...
WatchN.T. Wright on Blogging/Social Media. Very thoughtful and wise.
“We begin to grow when we take responsibility for the growth of another person....”
– HowardHendricks
I want ‘active reconciliation’ to become something that defines my theology and practice.
In my friend Andy’s extra-curricular experience for class, he discussed how he heard Cornell West speak of Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. West insinuated that we should not put Dr. King on a pedestal, but rather we should realize that the “dream” he fought for is within the power of each of us. This...
a day in the life
Today I get to spend some time talking through the following question with co-workers:
“What is your ideal ministry day?”
A rough draft, considering a portion of my day is spent in an office:
Studying/Preparing: Letting the things that I’m teaching and leading on be always present on my mind.
Helping leaders lead. Helping non-leaders lead. Getting people the resources to...
“We don’t get to our futures any faster if we hurry. And we certainly...”
– Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook
“The prophet is called to be a child of the tradition, one who has taken it...”
– Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
synonymous
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49.6
+ Commentary
In his poetic way, Isaiah is giving prophetic vision to the future of God’s work among humanity.
As I write this, in that eerie...
