A wise mentor once told me there is no difference between doing the wrong thing and doing the right thing the wrong way. In the Kingdom of God, leaders are governed by the standards of Christ, not simple pragmatism.
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...
High moral and ethical standards are essential, and they don't change from one job to another, or from one level of authority to another. Honesty, truthfulness, integrity, unselfishness--these are always there. And whenever a leader violates these basic principles,...
The standards of the civilization into which you are born are first outside of you, and by the time you get to be a man they're inside of you.
The church tends to hold up a standard of “biblical manhood” that simultaneously emasculates men (you are helpless to control your sexual urges) and beastifies them (you must RULE your marriage and family and keep them under control). Neither approach reflects...
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers...
Who stands fast? Only the person whose final standard is not his or her reason, principles, conscience, freedom, or virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God--the...
The human race is, was, and probably always will be deeply unwilling to accept a human messiah. We don't want to be saved in our humanity; we want to be fished out of it. We crucified Jesus, not because he was God, but because he blasphemed: He claimed to be God and...
When someone insists that we should only use the best music in worship, I scratch my head. Is the best music simple or complex? Written or spontaneous? Short or long? Do they mean the best aesthetically, pragmatically, emotionally, or historically? We usually have in...
We image God in the music we make and perform. When the program is hit-or-miss, we show forth a God who lacks purpose and direction;…when our performance of music lacks vitality or artistic grace, we portray God as inert; when our musical choices revolve around taste...