-
The One, Two Punch: Choosing Not to Fear
Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. How is your heart today? Seared by that slow motion snuff-film video? Rattled by the riots? Don’t they feel like a one, two gut punch? On top of the virus threat that lurks out there as we begin to venture out? My heart is grieved and angry over that video. And I’ve been ambushed by fear several times in the last few days. Maybe you have too. If you read my April 7th post, you may remember that because of my failure to wholeheartedly trust God during the Great Recession crisis of 2008, I determined…
-
Part II: Every Tribe, Language, People, and Nation: Revelation and Flying Buttons
If anyone happens to see the elephant standing on my chest, please ask it to step off. Could be asthma. Could be anxiety. Maybe both. At the grocery store two days ago I couldn’t believe my eyes—a crowded store with minimal social distancing or use of face masks. The governor lifted the lockdown because he wanted to boost the economy—not because the coronavirus evaporated. I want things to go back to normal, too. Or do I? The Great Realisation, a video poem circulating YouTube and Facebook, outlines the way of the world prior to COVID-19. With the catchphrase, “Hindsight’s 2020,” a father reads his son a bedtime story describing…
-
Leading Through a Pandemic: Three Questions for Ministry Leaders
Today I’m happy to have as my guest, Morgan Eseke. After studying leaders during high-stakes, high-pressure situations for more than two decades, Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative summarizes: “Crises are most often over-managed and under-led.” Researchers explained that leaders often find themselves making decisions based on the tyranny of the urgent. And in doing so they fail to gaze beyond the crisis to intentionally lead others through the uncertainty toward a more promising future. Certainly, woven into the DNA of Christian faith is an outlook oriented toward a promising future. As we sit in the midst of a pandemic that has overturned normal ministry operations and shattered plans, we can…
-
Loving Your Neighbor from Six Feet Away: Serving Others during COVID-19
The recent COVID-19 recommendations from government and health officials have most of us hunkered down in our homes, only venturing out for the occasional walk or necessary errand. Though the times have necessarily dictated a drastic change in our daily routines and social norms, how can the church continue to connect and serve our communities well…from a distance? Below are some ideas, many of them crowd-sourced from Facebook. If you are able, pick one or two and better yet, make it a communal event by asking your family/friends/Bible Study/small group/etc. to join you. Donate to food banks and homeless shelters. Roughly 18% of American children live in “food insecure” homes;…
-
Corona Virus and the Good, Loving Sovereignty of God
As I write this there’s a chance that Jack and I have been exposed to Covid-19. We were already starting to wind down non-essential outings, but when friends asked us to meet them for lunch last Wednesday, we agreed. They mentioned that their son had just returned from the Caribbean where he worked with a water purification project for a local ministry. When he left here there were no recorded cases in the Caribbean basin. Last Wednesday the country where he had visited reported their first five cases. A few days later our friends texted us from the hospital where they had taken their very sick son. He tested negative…
-
A Christian Response to Ebola
I want to tell you a story—about St. Catherine. But let me preface my remarks by saying that the Bible calls every believer a “holy one,” or a “saint.” And because all are “set apart” and not just a select few, the Reformers—with their emphasis on the priesthood of all believers—sought to minimize the clergy/laity divide. So ever since the Protestant Reformation, which swept across Europe in the sixteenth century, those of us who inherited their legacy have tended to downplay canonized saints and their days. Sure, we know about St. Patrick and St. Nicholas and St. Valentine’s Days, and perhaps the Feast of Stephen (thanks to Good King W.),…
