I am writing a book with the tentative title "Paradoxical Christians Mission: Theology Reflections for Weak, Small, Poor, and Slow Ministry." In case it wasn't clear in the title, I am suggesting that Weak, Small, Poor, and Slow are GOOD qualities in ministry. As I have been writing I feel myself bumping up against the …
Continue reading When You Rule the Mountain, the Mountain Rules You (Seven Mountain Mandate)
The other day, yesterday in fact, my wife and I were leading a seminar at a church in Baguio City, Philippines. There were between 30 and 40 people there--- perhaps 1/3 of them were people we knew. One we definitely know is Roland (I am using a pseudonym here, meaning that the one thing you …
Continue reading Affirm and Inspire— and One of the Most Important Letters I Don’t Remember Writings
So deathscrolling through the news and I saw that another famous pastor had been outed with regard to sexual misconduct. I was vaguely familiar with him... but apparently his is a pretty big name in certain circles. That same article then linked to a Charisma magazine article about a number of recent pastors who have …
Many (most?) of you are aware of the report that came out on Ravi Zacharias and some of his sexual misconduct (and the associated misuse of funds, as well as deception, to maintain the misconduct). I have friends who are real fans of Ravi, but I must admit I don't really know much of his …
Karl Barth in his book "The Humanity of God" wrote, One day in early August I 914 stands out in my personal memory as a black day. Ninety-three German intellectuals impressed public opinion by their proclamation in support of the war policy of Wtlhelm II and his counselors. Among these intellectuals I discovered to my …
We do a number of tests at our counseling center. We have partners in our work who are psychometricians, but we generally have little to do with tests that are built around DSM-V. We tend to focus on tests that are more valuable in pastoral counseling, and ones that lead more towards conversation than formal …
For years it was happening to THEM. THEY were in the spotlight, not US. But things change... and it is about time. For years the Catholic Church has taken a lot of hits for cases of priests taking sexual advantage of parishioners... especially (but not exclusively) young ones. I must be honest that I have …
A political election is coming up in the US this November. They are a challenge for me because my friends come from a wide variety of perspectives. I sometimes find myself siding with one side and sometimes with the other, but never consistently with either side. The reason for this is that "I Love Gridlock." …
I was listening to a Carey Nieuwhof podcast (CNLP 134) interviewing Carl George and Warren Bird. One statement struck me and then I lost the train of the interview as I mulled on that. My internal monologue/dialogue tends to be louder than my laptop speakers. They were talking about how many church leaders take seriously …