-
The Inescapable Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life Every leader will spend seasons of life wandering in the wilderness. It’s inevitable and inescapable. There are no exceptions… The wilderness. Barren, empty, lifeless, colorless, solitary, unending hard sand, rock outcroppings, and rugged mountains. Hot in the day, cold at night. Far from the action, from the crowds, from life and what matters. Yet, in the Bible, the wilderness is the place where the action is, where the holy God shows up, where leaders are called, a nation is formed, and a Savior prepared. It is the place of spiritual warfare, the…
-
The Sacred Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life The wilderness is God’s original temple, His personal dwelling place where He called His followers out to meet Him and be in His presence. It was in the wilderness that God called and commissioned Moses; it was in the wilderness that God gave the Ten Commandments; it was in the wilderness that God formed Israel; it was in the wilderness that God designed and guided Moses to create the tabernacle; it was in the wilderness that God disciplined His people to serve Him and to represent Him among the nations; it was…
-
Time Savers, Life Takers
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken You have the watch, we have the time –African proverb Well, Apple has the watch anyway! Mac has taken a bite out of the apple with its heart measuring, health monitoring, run pacing—and, oh yeah, time telling—watch. There’s a whole new world of time savers available in any language from IOS to Android to Windows. And there’s all those other tech time savers like DVRs, online banking, texting, caller ID, and navigational tools, Yes, and Evernote and Dropbox too, both of which have cost me more time trying to figure out how to use than they ever saved me. That’s my problem, I’m…
-
Fifty-Five Years Ago this Week
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Fifty-five years ago this week I flew from Philadelphia to Dallas to become a student at Dallas Theological Seminary and enter into the great adventure that transformed me from a rough edged kid into a pastor, professor, and mentor. Amazing! So many rough edges remain, but grace has worked through them despite my flaws. Three influences at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) laid the foundation for God’s grace in me, and I want to celebrate these influences for His glory… 1. My fellow students, peers who taught more than anyone else, perhaps in all my life. I sat in the classroom with some of…
-
Mortunity
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Huh? Mortunity? Is that a word? Bet you’ve never seen that one before. I hadn’t until I got it from a friend who made it up while talking with me recently. I was telling my friend that in this year 2015 I have had the greatest sense of mortality ever, that this awareness has colored my thinking and has been a drag on my decisions.I have three things that won’t lie: my birth certificate, my passport, and my mirror—and these all combine to say I’m mortal! At the same time, I have never had greater opportunities, from ministry expansion in Romania and Ukraine,…
-
Transforming the Heart
Leadership is Broken Because Leaders are Unbroken Nearly three hundred years ago, Jonathan Edwards wrote on of the greatest Christian classics of all time entitled, Religious Affections. By “Affections” Edwards meant the deepest desires and drives of the heart. For Edwards, this is what our faith is about, and, while he doesn’t need me to confirm him, I believe he is absolutely right. I also believe his perspective is missing in today’s thinking. Edwards said, “. . . no one is ever changed, either by doctrine. . . or by preaching or teaching of another, unless the affections are moved by these things. . . . there is…
-
Attentiveness to God
During a particularly challenging and confusing season of life, I almost daily cried out to God, “God, is this your will for me? Did I hear you wrong? Did I walk outside your will? I’m not sure what to do. Please tell me what to do. And please make it clear.” But no matter how desperately I called out or how long I pleaded for an answer, I couldn’t hear God’s voice. In that silence, I felt alone. I’m guessing that you’ve probably been in that place too. That place of desperation where you are crying out, “God, are you there? If you are, just tell me what to do.…
-
Not Your Grandmother’s Lumbago
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken With friends like us the cross hardly needs enemies, although it has many. Think of how we distort the cross. Many of us probably heard our grandmothers say, “My lumbago is killing me. It’s my cross. I must bear it.” Right then, before we knew what the cross was, we knew we didn’t want one if it made us feel the way Grandma felt. Or it’s presented to us as some horrible struggle we must endure because we follow Jesus. Now it’s true that the cross can mean rejection and persecution for the cause of Christ, but there’s more to it than that……
-
When Eggs Learn to Fly
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken It’s no news to anyone that C. S. Lewis was a master of metaphors, and I read one recently that really grabbed me. He said it’s truly hard for an egg to learn to fly. To learn to fly, an egg has to become a bird—but it’s not easy for eggs to become birds. After all an egg has to give up everything it is to become a bird. Eggs have to give up their lovely oval appearance; they have to give up their protective shell; they have to see their natural inward self transformed into something that isn’t remotely like them at…
-
Live the Jesus Lifestyle: Make Disciples
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken The most disobeyed directive Jesus ever gave is the last directive Jesus ever gave: make disciples. Nothing could be plainer than Jesus’ final marching orders: make disciples! That’s what He said, that’s what He meant. Yet all over the world we find pastors, churches, deacons, elders and church members who are radically disobedient. Some are ignorant, others are willful, but they are disobedient nonetheless. Pastors give in to tradition and the demands of their people and choose to disobey Jesus’ final command. Many seem to think that ministry is about making them successful, or keeping their job secure, which they…