'Faith' Tagged Posts
Honestly, I’ve Been Anxious about My Return to Ministry
I first felt the call to ministry a few years ago and I did all the normal things one does. I spoke with family and friends, sought guidance from my pastor and eventually went to seminary. The church has been nothing if not affirming and welcoming. I have been leading a congregation for almost two…
3 Reasons Pastors Struggle With Comments
No one really likes criticism, especially if it’s not constructive, not given in a manner meant to help. We have all received feedback that was meant to demonstrate the intelligence of the one offering the criticism, or meant to tell us about what they value, that contains nothing on which we can build. I want to do my job well, and so do you, whatever you do. I…
From Tablet to Table
“From Tablet to Table” by Leonard Sweet didn’t exactly live up to my expectations. I am so on board with the topic I read it as a sort of fluffy read where I was going to just sit in the choir loft mumbling “preach on.” For the most part that is what I did, but the language was not as clear or poignant as I would have hoped, this isn;t Wendell Berry writing.…
Walking a Dog…What’s That Smell???
What’s that smell? It’s spring here on Vancouver Island and the flowers are budding and many tulips have already blossomed and many others stand sentinel straight waiting for just the right moment to grace the earth with their blooms. I was walking my dog this morning amidst the splendor and…
Walking Through the Motto in Lent
It’s Ash Wednesday and the internet is a flutter with what people are giving up (cheese, chocolate, booze, saying no, television, Facebook), and what people are picking up (saying yes more, saying I love you more, praying, meditating, running, scripture reading, small groups). What the Pope says we should do (love others better), and various other takes. Common among them…
Do I Need to Check My Brain at the Door?
Frederick Faber once wrote about one of the most challenging paradoxes of the holy life; that God is best known in the heart rather than the intellect. Darkness to the intellect/But sunshine to heart, wrote Faber. It is a paradox that I, like Jacob, have been wrestling with. I am someone who grew up in a largely secular culture and was mostly schooled in secular halls. I…
Thoughts on The Compelling Community
“The Compelling Community. Where God’s power makes a church attractive.” Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop. Crossway; 2015. In their book on community Dever and Dunlop pose a tough question, have we in our churches created communities that would exist even if God didn’t? Stop a second to think about that. What draws the people of a given congregation together? Do…
The Life of Faith Involves the Community of Faith
I have been meeting more and more people, both in person and online through social media sites like Facebook, who aren’t sure they need to go to church to be Christian. They make various arguments, at times they are sincere, but rarely are they based on the bible. I suppose, perhaps, you could be a…