Lessons In Leadership: It’s Not About You. (It’s About Them)
People are the problem and they are the solution; leadership is about mobilizing and engaging them with the problem
“When a patient comes to a surgeon, the surgeon’s default setting is to say, ‘You’ve got a problem? I’ll take the problem off your shoulders and I’ll deliver back to you a solution.’ In psychiatry, when a person comes to you with a problem, it’s not your job actually to solve their problem. It’s your... Continue Reading
Real Life in the Local Church
Church life can be a lot of frenetic activity, always busy but with no real agenda and direction
Take a roller-coaster ride through basic church life: buildings, budgets, crises, staff conflict, growing pains, disgruntled members, besetting sins and providing care, sermons, meetings…meetings…..meetings….and more meetings….fatigue, excitement about lives changed, another sermon to preach….more meetings…personal struggles, various ministries and programs to staff and events to plan, desperate need of volunteers, difficult people! Life in a... Continue Reading
Five Ways to Refresh the Saints in Your Life
The letter to Philemon gives instructions on how to refresh the saints
The precious, priceless ministry of refreshment. And how desperately needed it is. All around us are weary brothers and sisters who are slogging it out in a spiritual war (Ephesians 6:12) on a battlefield of a futile world (Romans 8:20). Yes, there are times for reproofs and corrections (2 Timothy 3:16). But most of the... Continue Reading
New Jersey Parents Sue Over Gay Conversion Therapy Ban
A NJ couple is challenging the law that prevents counselors from providing gay conversion therapy; they want their 15-year-old gay son to receive this treatment
While Gov. Chris Christie expressed concern about “government limiting parental choice on the care and treatment of their own children,” he ultimately decided that the risk of kids growing up with suicidal thoughts, depression, and substance abuse problems was paramount to the right of parents to seek the treatment. But the denial of that right... Continue Reading
McClay, Marcuse, and My Grandfather
The problem with the therapeutic revolution.
As psychological sexual identity comes to define who individuals are in the most basic sense, then everything else—from society’s moral norms to our physical bodies—has the potential of becoming simply so much external tyranny to be overthrown or turned into plastic, something to be escaped, ignored, or remade in accordance with individual whims. In... Continue Reading
The Scandal and Sweetness of John 3:16
God's love for His people is not sentimental, but sacrificial and based upon His love for His Son.
Christ uses the word world to show the mystery and fullness of God’s love, which is not limited to any race, region, or time. Jesus is not suggesting a universal atonement. He died for those whom God chose to believe in Him (John 6:37) and in whom He works saving faith as a gift of grace (Eph.... Continue Reading
6 Things Millennials Can Learn from Older Folks
Millennials have a lot to learn from the older generation about commitment, giving and service.
They don’t run away when the going gets tough or flee at the first sign of conflict. They recognize the pluses and minuses of the community in which they worship and serve. Older folks understand commitment, and many can’t wait to get back to church following an illness or a stint in the hospital. They are... Continue Reading
Wars of Religion?
Prior to the modern era, most governments operated from the context of a religious mindset.
Generally, then, I tend to accept claims of “wars of religion” at face value. On the other side of the argument, I’d also note that over the past century or so, militantly secular and anti-religious regimes have caused far more bloodshed and carnage than all the crusades, jihads, and wars of religion combined. What are... Continue Reading
8 Landmark Church-state Court Decisions That Shook America
A non-exhaustive list of cases that have shaped religious freedom.
In the 1925 media circus that was the Scopes “Monkey Trial,” a Tennessee teacher was found guilty of educating students about human evolution in a public school. In Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), SCOTUS ruled that teaching evolution is in fact not a crime and prohibited states from requiring “that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles... Continue Reading
When Mainline Protestants Were Influential
As mainline Protestant denominations declined, so too did the authority figure in culture.
It’s impossible today to imagine powerful Mainline Protestant missions officials sternly extolling righteousness to island natives, U.S. Marines or anybody else, much less compelling political action by government officials. A contemporary version might entail an activist Protestant missions executive, clad in shorts and a t-shirt, cajoling island natives into demonstrations against U.S. Navy vessels, to... Continue Reading