WHAT’S IN A NAME? Do you call yourself a Christian? A Lutheran? A Baptist? A Catholic? What if we called ourselves “Christ Followers?” What difference would that make in how we thought of ourselves? What difference would that make in how others thought of us? Is a rose by any other name still a rose? Or could it be something […]
Throughout life generally and ministry specifically I have fought the urge to hop on bandwagons. While new and exciting things are indeed new and exciting, stewardship of life beckons us to the tried and true. Of course, applying that too rigorously will make you vulnerable to missing fresh ways of doing things and at the same time make you liable […]
WHAT A DEPRESSING BOOK A while back I read a book recommended by Oprah Winfrey entitled The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is a gripping story about a father and son and their quest to keep alive following some kind of world-wide catastrophe (nuclear devastation, pandemic?). The thing that made it so depressing was that there was no hope. No […]
Leave some room around the edges. Margins matter. Imagine reading a book or paper that has the words right up the edge. Ugh! Imagine how you smile when you crack open a big thick book only to find the pages have wide margins. Ahh! Keep money margins. Don’t spend right up to the edge of your income. Leave some margin. […]
LIFELONG LEARNING We often hear about the importance of being a lifelong learner. As young people graduate they are reminded in commencement messages that their learning has not come to an end, but to a new beginning. What about you? What are you learning? Do you have a good book going? Do you have an avocation that keeps you stimulated? […]
You ought to get involved in a book club or two along the way. Book clubs build two kinds of relationships. First, conversation about a book will help you to know other group members better through the intellectual interactions. Second, through that conversation with the other group members you will actually get to know the author and the author’s material […]
THINK ON THIS: HOPE Have you read Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus lately? In the first chapter he encouraged the early followers of Jesus to really have the eyes of their hearts opened to a number of things. One of them was the HOPE of the Christians calling. Think on the hope that you have in Jesus. Christian […]
To state the obvious: you must make sure that you spend time with your family, corporately and individually. Daily, weekly and “vacationally,” you need to be with the family and they need to be with you. You neglect this to the detriment of all: yourself, your family, the congregation, the community. Strong, healthy families serve as the backbone of the […]
HELP YOU BELIEVE? The recent multiple shootings across our land sure help you believe… in evil, in wickedness, in profound brokenness. Death. Sudden. Brutal. Tragic. Senseless. We see it way to often. And we name what is behind it: evil. Such awareness of evil helps you believe that there must be something more to existence than the brief, unpredictable and […]