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Celebrity-Driven Christianity?
Aspire to lead a quiet life (1 Thess 4.11). “It’s the seemingly unimportant people who determine the course of history. The greatest forces in the universe are never spectacular. Summer showers do more good than hurricanes, but they don’t get a lot of publicity. The world would soon die but for the loyalty, creativity, and commitment of those whose names are unhonoured and unsung.” —author James Sizoo For seventeen years I served as editor-in-chief of a magazine for Christ-followers. In that position I constantly faced pressure from myself and others to gain followers by running a big-name profile on the cover. But I had to resist the temptation, because I…
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1 reason church leadership is out of order (and what to do about it)
I see you, pastor: pursuing the pastorate for a variety of reasons, commanding a stage, touting an epic power beard. I see you because, in many ways, I was you. So let me ask: have you gone through process? Sure, the issue is much older than you. Seventy years ago, any man with a grey flannel suit and a tie of regimental stripe could receive a pulpit. Several centuries ago, it was a man who could read Latin and, well, read. But, two thousand years ago when Jesus called the first pastor of his fledgling church, he led him through the process of becoming. Without it, insecurity, immaturity and ignorance…
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Shadows and Light: The Human Condition
We constantly wrestle the discrepancies between our public and private lives, our longing for Truth and love of deception, our quest for justice and ongoing prejudice. All of us have shadows and light flickering across our souls, which effects every aspect of life, including the local church.
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Scouting out the Leadership Gospel
Getting through the gauntlet of Girl Scouts outside the grocery store is a challenge for folks like me who don’t want to drop five bucks on some Lemon-Ups®. Candidly, I only spent a year with the Scouts and never became a top cookie seller. But don’t worry, I earned plenty of patches selling something else: the leadership gospel.
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Pay attention to the man behind the curtain
For years I served faithfully in the warmth of Christian community. God’s Word was alive and his Spirit, active. Worship felt passionate and life seemed purposed. My relationship with God had grown exponentially, yet I was ignorant of being discipled to idolize an institution. Like many, I relied on the claims that real conflicts only exist out there, that in here is perpetual peace, that sameness brings safety, that blind loyalty to church leadership signifies true faith. Then, Toto tugged back that thick curtain to expose a withered man spinning knobs. I stood there clenching the burnt broomstick of everything I knew to be true and desperately wanting someone to…
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What Bothers You?
The question “What bothers you?” was brought up recently during a sermon I heard from my pastor. It’s the kind of question that can either stir up some things in you or it can make you shut down because whatever it is that bothers you is dragging you down and you feel helpless to resolve it. My pastor asked this question after he told the Bible story of Ehud the Benjamite who was under severe Moabite persecution and was bothered enough about it to kill Eglon the Moabite king. The result was that he was able to fire up the rest of the Israelite people and start an uprising strong enough to…
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Blessed are the Bankrupt
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . (Mt. 5:3) What stunning, shocking words! What king announces his rule by calling the poor in spirit to him, the bankrupt, those with no resources who bring nothing to him? Only one. The King who is lowly in heart, who offers a light burden because He is not bent down by the weight of pride. Amazingly these are the first recorded words of discipleship Jesus uttered. Jesus requires bankruptcy to enter His kingdom… That’s what it means to be poor in spirit: spiritual bankruptcy, a total lack of resources to do what ultimately…
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Last Things First
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken The Great Commission was the last words Jesus said, but it was among the first thoughts in His mind as He began His ministry. Why was it that one of the first actions He took was to choose disciples (Mt. 4:18-22) if He did not have a purpose in mind for them? He certainly did not intend to spend the better part of three years preparing followers for nothing… And why did He persevere so relentlessly with them when they rejected His message and thought like Satan (Mark 8:33) or created more confusion than clarity when a father sought their help for…
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Start With the End in View
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Jesus started with the end in view. From the first day of His earthly ministry to the last, He had His two-fold purpose before Him: redemption and preparation, the cross and the commission. He came to provide redemption for dying men and women. But what good would His redemptive death be if there were no one to tell others what it means? How could He establish a redemptive movement if He had no one to start it? That’s why He declared to His Father before the cross that He had accomplished His will by making the Father known to those He had…
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The Beatitudes Attitude: Introduction
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Today we start a new series drawn from the Beatitudes which describe the abounding blessings of Christ in us. We start with the introduction this week, go to a preview with our next entry, and then we will look at each of the Beatitudes to see what these blessings mean to us as we seek to grow in the Beatitudes Attitude. Blessed are . . . (Matthew 5:1-12) The first recorded words of Jesus to His future disciples were words of blessing, and what blessings they are! These blessings are the essence of life that have endured through the ages and define…
