I call all of this “preparing the soil to receive the seed of the gospel.” The picture and first paragraph are the metaphor for the idea. Fill the bed with a rich, light soil mix. A general all-purpose recipe includes 1 part perlite and 2 parts each of topsoil, peat moss, and compost. Mix it … More Preparing the Neighborhood Soil for Christmas
Awesome image isn’t! That blue whale is soooooo big and that diver is sooooo small in comparison! The size and power of that blue whale is huge. It needs no breathing apparatus to swim the ocean deeps, unlike the diver with his oxogen tank and flippers. But as awesome and wonderful as that blue whale … More Perspective and Focus Changes Everything
Can a book published 40 years ago speak with relevance to our situation in a post-Christian COVID-obsessed world riddled with violence and injustice? It depends, but it is likely that if the book is part of the Multnomah Press, “CRITICAL CONCERN” series, that the answer is yes. Yesterday, I was in a conversation with a … More Have Your Relational Capacities been Crippled by the Obsessions of Our Evening News?
Startling fact: Every 1/40th of a second, the retina of your eye can transmit a new image consisting of more than 100 million bits of information. Yeah, that didn’t happen by chance! No matter how many years you add to your evolutionary continuum. All hail the Creator! “The eye is the lamp of your body; … More All Hail the Creator!
“Edwards challenges the idea that we can be true Christians apart from a growing life of private prayer. If we lack that, we may as well face up to the fact that we are hypocrites.” Today, a dear friend and prayer warrior pointed me to T. M. Moore’s, Give Him No Rest: Readings, Meditations, and … More When Private Prayer Condemns Us
Over the years, consulting with many churches, pastoring three, planting one, overseeing the planting of seven others, I have come to the conclusion that many in our churches have a misunderstanding of and a conflation of terms when they talk about outreach and evangelism. They are different. They may be handmaids to one another but … More The Difference between Outreach and Evangelism
Updating a Reading List for Multi-ethnic Ministry The bibliography associated with my chapter in A Heart for Community: New Models for Urban and Suburban Ministry (2010) is somewhat out of date. This is not because the previous books are irrelevant or have been superseded but because new literature has been added to the corpus of … More An Updated Reading List on Multi-ethnic Ministry and a Short Apologetic for Broader Reading Patterns
I started this post some time ago (2 years). I hope it is completely irrelevant. Gun violence isn’t a left or right issue. It isn’t even a law versus more laws issue. There is more evidence all the time of a deep sickness at the core of American society in these shootings in Columbine, CO, … More The Next Shooting
I had lunch with an old friend from college today who was holding on to a broken-hearted joy. For many years, two of his children have been wandering in far countries, like prodigals aiming at pig styes. Two children who had left the fold and with it, despite all of my friend and his wife’s … More Holding on to Broken-hearted Joy
The revelation of the character of our God is all over the Bible. Psalm 15 was part of today’s meditation. Inferences from Psalm 15 concerning the character of God: That He is holy. That He is blameless. That He is a truth speaker. That He does no evil. That He despises vile things. That He … More He is Worthy
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