When we would rather erase the previous period of time rather than reflect on it, it may be that burnout, fatigue, or just plain discouragement is impeding our ability to feel anticipation or excitement about the future.
Reflection Roundup: Bell Ringers
Here’s a Christmas playlist full of Fisher favorites for fun and frolic. Maybe a few will inspire musing, meditation, and a little Christmas magic.
What Then Should We Do?
Where does John the Baptist fit among Bing Crosby on the radio, children on a stage, and Charlie Brown memories?
A New Light Has Dawned
But into the darkness, God sends his light. It’s what he has been doing since the beginning. “Let there be light” were the first words spoken.
Reflection Roundup: Joy Bomb
Our youngest son’s birthday is next week. When he first arrived on the scene, he emanated joy from within. Still does! How might we bomb those around us with joy this week?
On Levi’s Jeans and Wine
In many established churches, we continue to assume that our jeans and our wineskins that we have received from a previous generation are still capable of holding the dynamic, electrifying power of the gospel.
Twenty Years of Congregational Change: The 2020 Faith Communities Today Overview
Summarized responses from 15,278 congregations and 80 denominations or religious groups resulted in the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the U.S.
Thinking About Church Leadership in a Different Way
Many of us talk to churches about how to rethink our approach coming out of the pandemic. This is a chance to do things differently.
Reflection Roundup: Light Bringers
Squaring off against the darkness, acknowledging its created separateness from the light that is God in the lives of people, is our posture for this season.
Christmas’s War on You
Like an insurgency amid a people we are trying to free, Christmas has decided to go to war with our ideas of Christmas. We are, I’m sad to say, fighting a war on two fronts.
Prove It
When the stakes are high, the words that come out of our mouths are our strongest witness, only trumped by our nonverbal communication. For this article, I’m going to focus on the words.
Reflection Roundup: Behold, the Light
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.