Having served on the pastoral staff (relatively briefly) of a couple of churches, ran a Christian counseling center (for much longer), and served on the faculty of multiple seminaries, I have seen the recurring struggle over what is more important, people or institutions. When counseling one or two members of a marriage--- should one focus …
Continue reading In Ministry, People are More Important than Institutions
I am teaching an online class, "Introduction to Pastoral Care and Counseling" for seminary students in Sierra Leone. The students had a great question: Why call it "Pastoral Care and Counseling"? Why not simply call it "Care and Counseling"? This is a more fleshed-out version of my response to the class. "Pastoral" comes from the …
Continue reading What Makes Pastoral Care and Counseling “Pastoral”?
<I took a break from posting to clean up my old posts. I have gone through all of my posts from the beginning in 2009 to the end of 2012. I deleted around 100, and touched up the rest.> Leviticus 19:33-34 seems to have become a popular verse recently, at least in the United States. …
Continue reading Foreign Missionary Thoughts on Leviticus 19:33-34
I have been putting posts on here for almost 17 years--- over 1700 posts. I realized that I feel, in the moment at least, that I am running out of things to say. I am sure that this is not a long-term thing, but now that I am in my 60s, I am starting to …
So let me give you my story: My wife and I moved to the Philippines in 2004. In my wife's case, she was moving back after 24 years living in the United States. Anyway, for many years (early 2004 to mid-2021) we spent 10-12 months a year in the Philippines doing ministry. For all of …
A few years ago the comedian Norm MacDonald passed away, and I had taken one of his jokes, "The Moth Story" and reworked it. The reworking it gives it a bit of a Christian ministry message. I don't think Norm would disapprove (that much). I put in on our ministerial website for Bukal Life Care. …
I have been a bit surprised at a pattern I have seen recently, especially among American Evangelicals. I see a trend of these Christians (and I generally can be described as an American Evangelical) have with the message(s) of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7). First, though, I should note an older view …
Continue reading HALF in Agreement That the Sermon on the Mount is Not for Today.
The TLDR is that my wife and I, as Evangelical/Baptist missionaries, often work with Catholic ministers (priests, nuns, chaplains) in the Philippines. So my answer to the question above is "Yes." Now, here is the longer answer. My wife and I don't get many questions about why we do certain things and not other things. …
Continue reading Can Evangelical Missionaries Work with Catholic Ministers?
I think most Christians would kind of like the Bible to be written more like a Charles Dickens novel. I mean that in terms of characters. Dickens wrote social commentary with numerous characters. In this sense, his novels share something with much of the Bible. A big difference is that Dickens uses pretty simple characters. …
I don't normally point people to someone else's article, but I will today. William Wade Burleson, wrote a great article, sharing it on FB, strangely, addressing the issue of female clergy. He links the hermeneutics of this issue with that of slavery. He was not relabeling or equivocating. Rather, he was noting the similarity in …