The Limits Of Leadership: Integrity And Incarnation by Andy Stoddard

One of my great hesitancies when I first entered the ministry concerned leadership.  I was afraid to lead.  I had too many doubts.  What if I choose wrong?  What if I lead my people poorly?  What if I make a mistake and it all falls apart?    As I was going through ordination in the United Methodist Church, my mentor suggested I read In the Name of

Read More ⟶

Loneliness And Friendship In Ministry by Carrie Carter

Sometimes there are questions that simply do not have clear solutions.  As my husband and I neared the end of our first ministry assignment, a woman said to me, “I think if you hadn’t have been in your position of leadership, we could have been good friends.” Even in my late twenties, I didn’t completely comprehend what she was saying. It stung,

Read More ⟶

Excuses, Excuses: Common Sense, Morality, And The Divine Revelation of God by Elizabeth Glass Turner

Humans are expert excuse-makers.   “Well, GOD, the woman you gave me tempted me, so…that’s why I didn’t listen to you when you told me not to eat anything from that tree.”  “I know I’m not supposed to cut my hair, but…I mean, have you seen Delilah? I’m only human.”  “I’d love to follow you, Jesus, but I have family obligations and an urgent to-do list first.

Read More ⟶

A Better Place (Part 2) by Cole Bodkin

What is the better place? As seen in the last post, the three most popular sketches of the Christian “better place”—heaven-centered, human-centered, and world-centered—have been various soteriological attempts to depict both our hope and mission. (Soteriology, as you may remember, refers in theology to the theology of salvation.) However, as John C. Nugent argues in his book Endangered Gospel: How Fixing the World

Read More ⟶

Let Your Longings Work for You by Carolyn Moore

Go to the Limits of Your Longing -Rainer Maria Rilke God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows

Read More ⟶

The Value Of Godly Grief by Andy Stoddard

Have you ever felt really badly about something you’ve done wrong?  Have you ever in some way harmed another person or harmed your walk with God?  Have you ever done something that you just know you should not have done, and then you realize it.  And wow.  You feel terrible.  You just feel awful.  You want to make it right.

Read More ⟶

The Better Place (Part 1) by Cole Bodkin

Airborne illness. War. Overpopulation. Mass chaos. Environmental disaster. Oppressive dictators. All of these – and more – are cataclysmic triggers for a dystopian society. If you’re catching up with American publishing, television, and film, the genre of “dystopia” has flooded the entertainment industry. For many, it’s becoming a little repetitive and mundane; but like it or not, people are fascinated,

Read More ⟶

Subscribe

Get articles delivered directly to your inbox as soon as they come out.