Just as the concept of one single breath is not enough to sustain us, neither is a “one-and-done” idea adequate to establish spiritual rhythms.
Reflection Roundup: Adding Value
Remember the song, “Make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold”? All are precious partners in God’s mission.
Congregational Mission: A Report From the Field
I commend these three core beliefs to all leader teams. Hope in God’s preferred future, practice non-anxious courage, and exercise prayerful imagination.
Reflection Roundup: Trust Is the Antidote to Panic
God’s image is presented to the world through the people of God, who use all available resources to meet the needs of the world because that’s what God does for us.
Tony, Trina, and the God of Second Chances
It’s a story of the God of love and grace doing his work among his people. It’s a story for the sinner and the lonely, a story for those in grief and pain, and a story of redemption.
Reflection Roundup: On Our Knees
The community of faith is able to truly embody unceasing prayer when we acknowledge the joint prayers of Christians around the world and throughout Christian history.
Lead, Don’t Boss
Church leadership is so weird. As I observe church leadership teams, including my own, I think everyone feels it. Who is the boss? Um, maybe no one.
Reflection Roundup: Beyond Language
Music, poetry, the vulnerable submission of our blind spots to the examination of trusted others, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to breathe it all in. These are my prayers as we camp in new perspectives and different rhythms for a bit.
The Offensive Cross: Discipleship is Uncomfortable!
You really want to follow Jesus? You want to gain life with him through the resurrection? You first must join him at the uncomfortable cross!
Reflecting On “Heart-Shaped Pickles”
As church leaders, parents, and invested adults, I know we all see this need for supporting children through times of grief. I want to share a little perspective and some resources that I pray you find helpful.
Reflection Roundup: A Nap and a Snack
This week one of my colleagues suggested taking care of ourselves might be our most important job, then went on to wonder if we could actually consent to a less-anxious model for those in our midst.
On Reading the Bible
What I am about to say will sound so elementary that I risk losing you, my reader, before I even get to the end of this paragraph. But here goes. I want you to read your Bible.
I Got out of Bed
While the day was successful in terms of accomplishing my agenda, I realized that my greatest achievement on that day was that I got out of bed – despite the mental odds, self-doubt, and insecurities.
Reflection Roundup: Relationships Birth Understanding
The resurrection Spirit pursues us as we continually cycle through relational renewal with the evidential environment of the created world: with the people, the creatures, the living organisms therein.
The OODA Loop and the Overflow of the Heart
How can we apply the OODA loop – observe, orient, decide, act – to congregational leadership?
Reflection Roundup: “This is the way; walk in it” (Is. 30:21)
When at a crossroads, not knowing whether to go to the right or to the left, trust the voice of God who says, “Here is my way; walk in it.”
Five Steps to Restore Your Church’s Vitality
Sometimes, a health crisis hits a church squarely in the face. If the church possesses enough self-awareness, it then faces the choice to either make dramatic changes or else permanently lose health and vitality.
No Words
We can get so paralyzed by the complications, the insecurities, the fears, the bruises from past failures, our defenses and the many other things that make up life’s big ball of yarn.
The Challenge and Opportunity of Discontinuous Change
During a time of re-imagination, these challenges can open new doors and help us see our communities in a new light.
Reflection Roundup: Joining
Our ultimate powerlessness levels the human playing field yet serves to unite when we courageously join God’s movement, continually willing to dance the faithful steps of contemplation and action.