The Church is not to be found at the "center" of a left/right political world. The Church is to be a species of its own kind, confounding left, right, and center, and finding its identity from the "center" of God's life in Christ.
The curse is, you will be tempted to believe that you can live your life off your gifts and not do the deep work of character formation. Your gifts can take you only so far. But there are no such limits when it comes to a life marked by deep character. --from The...
How can you tell the difference between the conviction of the Holy Spirit & the condemnation of the evil one (or our own thoughts) Here’s one way: Conviction leads to a greater longing to love better. Condemnation has us focus on how unlovable we are.
Quite an exchange a student had w/theologian, Karl Barth. Student: "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions & not only Christianity?" Barth: "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed...
We keep Sabbath not because it makes us more productive at work. We keep it to resist the idol of productivity. We are more than what we produce.
From a couple years ago and evidently, still relevant: "I used to argue with others who didn’t believe women could preach and pastor. So much energy wasted. Nowadays, I just train and provide opportunities for women to preach in our congregation. And when they do,...
Doubt is not the enemy of faith. It's the ground out of which faith often emerges. Faith requires us to venture into mystery. There's no certitude in mystery. Doubt and faith are companions on the journey.
The Gospel must not only offer a personal salvation in the future life to those who believe; it must also transform all the relationships of life here and now and thus cause the Kingdom of God to prevail in all the world. from The Deeply Formed life: Five...
The beauty of Christian spirituality is that the God we are in relationship with is for us in Christ. Like the father in the prodigal son story, God is waiting with his eyes looking for us in the distance. He is waiting to embrace us. This image might take some...
The Good Samaritan story is not just a good example of compassionate spirituality. It is a critique against religious passivity. If "church people" won't work for justice and mercy, God will find some other people who will.