Schadenfreude, German word that comes from two words that literally mean "harm-joy," is that certain pleasure one feels at the misfortune of others. Do Christians feel this? Take a little look at FB or nearly any other social media outlet and it is there. Just the other day, I saw Christians reveling that an earthquake …
Month: August 2016
What Happens When Conflicts are NOT Resolved
A mission team can go through similar process as what happens in a church when conflicts are not resolved. “Two intensifying processes take place throughout the stages of unresolved conflict: (a) an increasing personal frustration over the unresolved issue(s), and (b) an increasing negative perception of the character of the other person / people.” Looking …
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A Minister’s Five Best Friends
Liz Ryan is one of my favorite columnists-- a regular contributor to Forbe's Magazine. She writes regarding business employment-- hiring, firing, and managing people. Although I have been out of the corporate world for over a decade, I find much of what she says very applicable in ministry as well. Much of her guidance centers …
Relative Relativism
Consider this story, "An American missionary couple went to British Columbia to minister among the Kwakiutl Indians. The work was not progressing as rapidly as the couple had hoped, and the village chief was not cooperative. When their first child, a handsome son, was born, they named him after the chief, thinking this would flatter …
Parable of the Lost Pearl (Reprise)
I would like to take the Parable of the Lost Pearl, as used by Patriarch Timothy I in 781 AD, and give it a few twists to suggest different theological views. The parable can be seen in the original form in THIS PREVIOUS POST. Consider the parable this way... "Long ago, a royal expedition returned …
Ministerial Burnout
I have the blessing of talking with many ministers (missionaries and pastors primarily). It is often rather amazing how their public selves diverge from their private selves. Their public selves are all “Praise God!” and “God is Good All the Time!” (Is God good all the time?) But privately, they will often open up about …
Prophetic Politics?
I was looking at my FB stream a few days ago, and saw a post that was being shared by a friend. It showed two pictures-- one was apparently evangelical pastors in prayer, while the other a catholic priest... pontificating, I suppose. The overlayed captions referred to these two groups' relationships to the new Philippine …
Advice from Asian Missionaries
My "Missionary Member Care" Class at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary questioned missionaries here in Asia about some of their challenges in missions. I have 11 students, and they each asked 3 missionaries 12 questions and recorded their answers. All of my students are from South Asia, East Asia, or Southeast Asia. From the 396 answers, …
The Lost Pearl in “Timothy’s Apology for Christianity”
In 781 A.D., there was a discussion between Patriarch Timothy I, and Mahdi, the third of the Abbassid Caliphs at Baghdad. Excerpt from Timothy's Apology for Christianity. You can read the rest of it HERE. "O our victorious King, in this world we are all of us as in a dark house in the middle …
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Designed to Fail or Float
. Imagine a missionary couple working among a group of tribes located along a jungle river. To reach these scattered tribes they need a bat to travel the river. They have found some scrap iron and other materials left behind by an oil-exploration crew. Using these materials, they began to build a boat, but they …