Maybe you’ve heard the quote: “Many professing Christians, for all practical purposes, live as functional atheists…” – Dan DeWitt, Jesus or Nothing Many times in today’s American Church culture we have been taught to de-personalize God and treat him in such a way that we are living as atheists even if we are talking like people of faith. In fact, we have gotten so skilled … Continue reading Re-personalizing God
I fell in love with the work of God in and thru the Moravians in my “Church Since The Reformation” church history class in Seminary. I know that may sound weird. But the Moravians captivated me. To the point that I forced my wife to go with me to Winston Salem, NC to go see the first Moravian community that formed in the United States. … Continue reading A Reflection on the Irony of Methodist Denominations and the Kingdom of God
The least possible evidence that someone has believed the Gospel of Jesus is that they center their lives upon trying to get people to show up to something in order to hear a verbal presentation of this Gospel. Continue reading The Good News: Incarnation
Another good title would be: Why leaving a ministry job might be saving their souls, and why you should stop talking about them. [If you haven’t read the pontifications of church “experts” about why people are leaving ministry jobs, then you can if you’d like. There are so many opinions on the stats out there and I’ve grown tired of reading them (just Google about … Continue reading An open letter to “church experts” trying to lead the conversation on people “leaving”
We’re in the beginning of the 4th week of 2022. And I’m still processing why it doesn’t feel like the new year even happened… I also wonder: Does anyone else feel that way or is it only me? I don’t have any specific answers yet as to why. But as I’ve been spending time with God about it, and He gave me this image: a … Continue reading 2022: The Fog
Are you even in the “church world” in 2021 if you don’t hear the term deconstruction at least every other day? This past year and a half has proven difficult for a variety reasons. One of the main ones is how rapidly language is coming at people. Especially complex philosophical concepts that come out of very specific worldviews. This is only compounded by the reality … Continue reading When we talk about deconstructing, what are we saying…
The amount of comments, blogs, posts, books, videos, and opinions about burn out that have been shared this past year is overwhelming. I likely have burn out from those more than the real aspects of my life… But nonetheless it feels necessary to address the topic as a part of this Words Matter series. First, to talk about burn out we have to attempt to … Continue reading Burn out is not failure.
In just my relatively short time serving God’s people, I’ve grown weary of some of the language and categories that often times get used merely out of habit (or it’s just the inherited way people have always talked about things). Many times it is because of the burden that this language can produce, as opposed to what Jesus intends with an easy yoke or teaching … Continue reading Words matter.
