The first step for church leaders (one meant to represent God) to regain trust by those damaged by the church is not to ask for itbut to genuinely ask them questions about their experience. “I want to know what this has done to you, how it affects you . . .” is where...
Our false selves counsel us to hide our true selves behind our performance, our caring for others, our intellectualism, our social savvy, our finances, our articulate presentations, our religiosity, or our skepticism. But our true selves long to see and be seen, to...
My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence? The Incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all...
One of the gifts of the Old Testament is how faithful Israel was in recording their unfaithfulness. Israel could've erased all their sins, but they recorded their idolatry, oppression of others, and when they put words in God's mouth. Erasing a nation's sins isn't...
Once we deeply trust that we ourselves are precious in God's eyes, we are able to recognize the preciousness of others and their unique places in God's heart.
I, too, am tired of the tame God and boxed-in-Christ, distorted by control-seeking humans who use religion to maintain the status quo. I'm yearning for a wild God that compels me to full participation in this miraculous dance of life, deepening the meaning in a core...
It’s not that God won’t give you more than you can handle, but that God will help you handle all that you’ve been given. from Half Truths: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
May God be forever blessed for putting up with me for so long.
I still love the church. I love the church universal, as well as the church local (red brick, white-columned with deacons smoking in the parking lot). With all of its dysfunction and flesh marks, with all of its confusion and humanity, it is still the best thing God...
Religion without the Spirit, without authentic spirituality, basically becomes a way to give divine sanction/endorsement/legitimization to our biases and prejudices and it becomes a way to maintain the status quo. It also becomes a means of exerting control over...