I acknowledge blaming is a comfortable reaction for me but I realize that I am actually giving away my personal power of choices when I blame. I will take responsibility for my life because no one else is responsible for my life and happiness but me. One of the most mature things a person can do is cross the line from being a blamer to taking responsibility for their lives.
I acknowledge blaming is a comfortable reaction for me but I realize that I am actually giving away my personal power of choices when I blame. I will take responsibility for my life because no one else is responsible for my life and happiness but me. One of the most mature things a person can do is cross the line from being a blamer to taking responsibility for their lives.
What would happen if Christians could be honest about: Why there is so much religious pathology in the church. Why so many young people leave the church. Why so many Christians don’t deal with their own “stuff”. Why we don’t live what we believe. Why life is still hard. Why there is so much hypocrisy in the church. Why betrayal eventually visits every Christian. Why racism, classism, and sexism persist in the church. Why so many people in churches are judgmental. Why the church cannot meet all our needs. A friend of mine, a literary agent, asked if I could write a book responding to questions that she had struggled with for so much of her Christian life. I’m not interested in writing a book on the answers but I did expand and edit her list. I don’t find, however, that these questions are indictments on the church. Understanding the answers, actually, is key. Read more.
Geri shared the following out of a Conversations Journal article by Henry Cloud entitled “Getting Saved” at a recent NLF Marriage Leadership Meeting. Her goal was to help us refocus on the central themes of our spiritual formation for the ministry in 2012-2013. God wants to heal (i.e. save) us and the people we lead so that we can do the following: 1. Connect Deeply with God and Others. Emotional connection is central to life. The Trinity lives in unbroken communion and union. God exists, three in one, in an ongoing, unbroken relationship; He created us for the same. How are your emotional connections with God and your family? 2. Establish Boundaries. God is free from the ones He loves. He stands up to the ones He is in relationship with, and set limits when He is violated. He is free from being controlled by those He loves. For relational or psychological problems to. Read more.
Leadership is intense –both inside and outside the church. The pressure, conflicts, and resistances we encounter touch “raw material” and powerful dynamics deep beneath the iceberg of our lives. We go to seminars and conferences on how to do better strategic planning, cast vision, delegate, better manage conflicts, and hire to our weaknesses. We read books on leadership and listen to podcasts on how to grow and expand our impact. That is good and commendable. I do those things myself. It is simply not enough. Our executive leadership team at New Life recently had two half-day meetings around a recent difficult event that we experienced together. We resolved the leadership/organizational issue well, but I was painfully aware profound “hot buttons” deep within our icebergs had been touched (i.e. issues coming out of our own early family histories). I knew God wanted me, and us, to stop and listen to Him. These “triggers” needed to be. Read more.
I am wrestling. Wrestling with I observe and experience in the North American church. I, along with many of you, am passionate for people to know Christ as well as for the church to be the church – i.e. healthy, growing into adulthood, mature, full of the life of Jesus per Eph. 4:11-16. I love the church. More importantly Christ does also. When I visit with other traditions (e.g. Orthodox, Roman Catholic, monastic), part of my tension is their lack of cultural relevance to communicate Jesus Christ into our culture. I see few young people. When I visit evanglical churches, the over-concern for growth in numbers seems to overshadow any time for genuine formation. Shallowness prevails. Dr. David Wells, a professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary recently published a book The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World. While I am not in agreement with everything he says or writes (I actually had. Read more.
