Peace is not pretending everything is fine. Peace is knowing who is in the boat and learning how to sit down while the waves are still loud.
All tagged fear
Are You Worried About the Future?
We know that church leaders need vision to see God’s work, clear eyes to see our ministry contexts, and hope for God’s redeeming work in the world. We know that the future is uncertain, but we also know that God is at work, that the world is not just our enemy, and that we have good grounds for hope!
Forcing Our Way into the Kingdom
And for those of us who are tempted in these ways, let me offer a gentle reminder: You don’t have to force your way into God’s kingdom. You don’t have to compete for Jesus’ attention. You don’t have to prove that you belong. Your task is simply this: to accept that God accepts you.
Fear is Just the Beginning
What is the problem with the wicked? Well, they have no fear of God! The lack of fear for God is reflected in a concomitant lack of restraint. Fear, at its best, can teach us how to control ourselves.
Does God Provide Miraculous Escapes?
Perhaps God’s miraculous rescues, when and if they happen, aren’t easily verifiable. Maybe they depend on faith to see these divine interventions.
What is Your Relationship with Fear?
The goal in effective leadership is not to eliminate fear but to make it a worthy partner. Fear is designed to be your friend until you make it your boss.
Moral Injury and the Church: No One Stands Alone
No one should ever have to stand alone in their suffering or their shame. Instead, we need to become a safe harbor for those who are floundering; this is our sacred calling.
Top Five for Speaking Up
You live and breathe, so you matter, which means you have every right to speak up. Period.
Reflection Roundup: All Is Prayer
Unity with God means moving through the world in constant communion: every bit of news, each conversation, every gaze met, offered up in prayer.
Reflection Roundup: Identity Celebration
The doctrine of the Trinity is what the church represents as she bends knee to the other who is giving a hand up while standing on the shoulders of a third, infinitely in sync and completely acrobatic!
Reflection Roundup: Sacramental Hospitality
As the created world hosts humanity, we have much to learn from the soil, from the seeds. Stretching toward the light, cultivated hearts propagate God’s mission.
Religious Services in the Age of COVID-19: Results From a Recent Survey (Part 2)
A follow-up piece reporting data and takeaways from an October 2020 survey of churchgoers about how the pandemic has impacted them and their congregations.
Four Fears and a Christian Response
These four fears stifle creativity and appear so commonly in congregations that I want to share them with you and offer a theological response.
Five Things I Would Do Right Now if I Were the Devil
The pandemic has given Christians a great opportunity to share their faith. But if I were Satan, here are five things I would do to be sure the church fumbles this opportunity.
Carrying On in Troublesome Times
How do we carry on when we do not know whether or not today is simply a preface to a harder tomorrow?
Being Re-Membered
If Holy Thursday teaches us anything, it’s that Jesus is in the business of putting souls back together that have been torn apart by grief and fear.
Passion Week Meditation
What’s a congregation to do? In these days of sheltering in place and quarantine and physical distancing, who is going to show up and celebrate an empty tomb?
He Stills Storms Still: A Meditation (Part 1)
Fear is not the most reliable of counselors. Yet in the face of darkness we all have to come to the terrible truth that monsters are real.
For Elders Who Are Worried about the Conflict That Gender Inclusion Will Cause, Read This
From my experience, resistance to gender inclusion was far more about fear, conflict, and change than anything else.
Disturbing the Peace
Anxious leaderships do allow cranky souls to disturb the peace for those in ministry; too often those leaders are themselves the agitators.