As the light of Christ streams in the window, lighting the room of our lives, let us notice what the light illuminates, yet not spend glorious, God-given energy attempting perfection in what is the Lord’s to complete.
Too Many Prophets, Not Enough Pastors
The message of Jesus is prophetic enough as it is. Ministers must obviously retell that message in a faithful manner. That act of proclamation is prophetic enough on its own. Given the difficulty with hearing who Jesus was and was really about, the story doesn’t need much additional help beyond that.
Making Decisions About Decisions
The past 18 months have given ministers and leaders ample – if unwanted – experience in making difficult decisions.
Reflection Roundup: Gratitude Shines its Light
A Grateful Haiku:
Gratitude unties
resentment’s tangle leaving
fresh eyes for God’s gifts.
Give Me the Bible
In the midst of the pain that inevitably comes from living in the world, may the truth of this hymn’s words make its presence known over and over again.
Reflection Roundup: Unfriendly Homeostasis
Beware of the lure of calm waters. Not every minister must be a “whitewater adrenaline junkie,” but paths toward missional goals often contain obstacles ministries must leverage.
Human Trafficking: A Church Issue?
As Christians, we strive to be more Christlike: to see marginalized people in their pain and vulnerability. To listen to them and their stories. To give them the kind of love that Jesus showed the outcasts.
The Parable of the Lost Sons
Like the older son, we can all remain with the father. Comfortable in our church building, performing our occasional goods works, while expecting the father to return our efforts with great reward.
Reflection Roundup: Generational Trust
Generational differences are a given; intergenerational trust is a must. It’s essential we listen to and honor the priorities of those going before us and those coming behind.
The One True Gospel
There are things that are part of obeying the gospel and living out the gospel. But they are not the good news.
Looking at You, Senior Ministers
Create a space where people are engaged in a conversation that undoubtedly needs to happen and likely is overdue.
Reflection Roundup: The Limitations That Myths Impose
Faith is the space between doubt and certainty; amid fear and self-assuredness lies trust in power, our knowledge of whom is but a dewdrop in the ocean.
Prenatal Yoga for Women of Color
We at Yoga 4 Philly see prenatal yoga as a necessity in improving the livelihood of our mothers, our children, and our world.
Praying Without Ceasing
Where does prayer fit in? Is it simply the customary thing we do at the beginning or end of a meeting? Or is prayer something more?
Reflection Roundup: Soul Fire
We must give ourselves over to letting what’s burning on the inside show on the outside. Otherwise, we miss an opportunity to warm someone else and may wind up consumed by our own flames.
Prayerful Brush Strokes
This prayer of examen represented a shift from brushing the day with the paint strokes of heavy drudgery, to realizing that there was room for gratitude.
Reflection Roundup: Embody the Message
Embody the unchanging story, the gospel that is truer than true, where you are “you-er than you,” rather than living in response to an old memory tape.
Preparing the Next Generation of Thinkers
Your congregations’ efforts to teach your teens and students how to study the Bible makes a difference. As a Bible professor, I can tell who has been taught to read the text for understanding.
A Story of Lifting Hands to Heaven
I often hear discussions about raising hands to the Lord, most often in the context of worship. Some are enthusiastic hand raisers; others are not.
Reflection Roundup: Topics That Stretch
Christ confesses in his Phil. 2 hymn that every knee that bows brings glory to God the Father.