There is always a cost to belonging, even when there is no membership fee to join. Every community, institution, and organization has their own ethos, expectations, and/or rules of engagement, which are often unstated yet can be as binding as the written rules. I went...
Seth Godin often asks: Are we connecting the dots, or merely collecting them? In that spirit, I want to connect a few seemingly diverse—but profoundly related—observations about the church today. * * * * * A recent article in The Economist began: Push open the heavy door and...
I serve on the board of a church-planting organization in which half our planters are immigrants or refugees. Due to intensifying immigration policy nationwide, many now hesitate to attend work, school, and worship. Three have lost visas or TPS and are pursuing new legal paths....
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill,...
The Deep Place is a short film highlighting the evil of child slavery, and the work of International Justice Mission (IJM), on Lake Volta in Ghana. It is a hard watch. The battle between darkness and light is conveyed both in the story and through...
As Ted Gioia recently observed, [caption id="attachment_10148" align="alignright" width="392"] John Martin, “Ruins of an Ancient City” c. 1810–20 , oil on paper, mounted on canvas Cleveland Museum of Art[/caption] “The biggest changes often happen long before they even get a name. By the time the scribes notice,...
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so...
Focus. Attention. Wonder. Stillness. “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” - Proverbs 4:25–27 I recently finished reading Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus. Hari reflects on a...
“Mystery is an embarrassment to the modern mind.” — Flannery O’Connor “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith lives in the quiet certainties of the heart. It is the ever-recurring assurance that reality does not ultimately mock our...