When you discover an intense experience, it becomes yours. You adopt it, mentally and permanently. And once it’s adopted, it stays in your memory as a part of your experiential history. Continue Reading
March 20, 2015
Newsong Church: In Tune or Off Key?
In the screwball comedy classic Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant, dressed in a woman’s bathrobe, jumps up and down shouting, “I’ve suddenly gone gay!” He could have been speaking for a growing number of congregations today. Continue Reading
January 19, 2015
Scars, Resilience, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“For the victory to be won some of us will have to get scarred a bit.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today we recognize a man and his legacy, and I'm happy to honor both. Continue Reading
December 19, 2014
Our Work and Our Needs
Fundraising has never been my strong suit, and frankly, asking for financial support is hardly one of "my favorite things". Continue Reading
December 10, 2014
The Content of our Character
“I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” -I Corinthians 3:2 I’ve got it backwards. The evidence of my physical maturity is glaring, while the signs of my spiritual maturity aren’t nearly as obvious. And that’s troubling, because a boy in a man’s body is a very unattractive thing. Continue Reading
October 1, 2014
Gotta Serve Somebody
“Nevertheless they will be his servants, that they may distinguish My service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.” -II Chronicles 12:8 “You may be the heavyweight champion of the world You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls. But you're gonna have to serve somebody” -Bob Dylan, “Gotta Serve Somebody” Continue Reading
September 30, 2014
The Intimate Enemy
“Husbands, love your wives”, Paul admonishes in Colossians 3:19. Well, we’ve heard that before, but then he adds an interesting challenge: “—and be not bitter towards them.” Hmmm. As a former Pharisee, Paul had almost certainly been married at one time, then probably widowed. He knew something firsthand about men and women, and the dynamics that come between them, and from that knowledge sprang a command to men not to be bitter towards their wives – spoken, it seems, with the assumption that bitterness can be a common problem to husbands. Continue Reading
July 29, 2014
You Want Her to Trust You Again?
The married man who uses porn, commits adultery, or gives himself to other kinds of unclean behavior breaks trust. He’s in a covenanted relationship with a woman he pledged himself to, probably with the best of intentions, but somewhere along the way he’s given himself permission to indulge. Sometimes there are problems in the marriage his wife is largely responsible for, and she’ll need to ‘fess up to that if things are to improve, but that can never excuse his sin. Other times (and I find this true more often than not) it’s a pretty good Continue Reading
June 26, 2014
Some ABC’s We Can’t (But Often Do) Ignore
Certain words – important ones - simply don’t mean what they used to. “Christian” traditionally meant born again, believing in the authority of scripture, and seeking to have one’s life conformed to God’s will and teachings. Now it’s become an ambiguous label for all things nice or spiritual. “Evangelical” referred to those believing the essentials of the faith while striving to share the Good News wherever they could. But like “Christian”, it too is fast losing its defining features, as more and more of those using the term are simultaneously Continue Reading
June 12, 2014
The Joy of Awful
“A person overtly expresses distress, but it is covertly gratified at the prospect of the satisfaction they can wring from their misfortune.” – Dr. Eric Berne, Games People Play Even as a child, dynamics between people interested me. I was ten years old when Eric Berne’s classic Games People Play was published, and since I helped myself regularly to my parent’s reading material, I dove into the book, intrigued by the title. I understood about half of it, but the 50% my boy brain could glean really stuck with me, and darned if the years Continue Reading
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