My Joshua Tree by Steve Beard
steve.beard
July 24, 2017
Through all this, Bono remains rock ‘n’ roll’s most effective spiritual provocateur. He sees every stage as a pulpit and every coliseum as a cathedral.
Through all this, Bono remains rock ‘n’ roll’s most effective spiritual provocateur. He sees every stage as a pulpit and every coliseum as a cathedral.
The church seems to be obsessed with numbers. We account for professions of faith, baptisms, membership and worship attendance, and these statistics for church health point to a crisis in the present and increasingly dismal view of the future. We seem to count everything. Even the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, made sure that every Methodist could be counted. However, it is my conviction
Scripture doesn’t describe causal prayer anywhere, but always about prayer that is a person emptying his or her heart to God of whatever emotions are there.
Kingdom-esteem leads to humility, because it involves recognizing that it’s not about us, it’s about what God has done for us.
God’s blessedness is already there, and we experience it when we seek God’s kingdom.
I like placing the deceased person’s story within the broader story God has been writing since the beginning of time.
Hell has dispatched some deceivers who are on the loose in your life!
Are our eyes as tuned to spiritual light as they are to physical light?
The joy God gives isn’t tied to happenstance, chance, or change. It is deeper, more lasting, and may even have some surprising components.
The Holy Spirit is always at work in the world and in the church regardless of the problems that we face and regardless of the darkness that seems to prevail.
When church leaders grieve, there is sometimes a spiritual reality that makes the grief of a pastor or priest slightly distinct from the grief of other leaders. Grief and reality pair together; anytime we find ourselves grieving, we find ourselves responding at multiple levels to what we perceive to be true, as cartoons remind us whenever someone cries over a
Many of us continue to deal with the effects of the pandemic in our schools, communities, and churches. No matter the location or size of the church, one universal and lingering effect of the post-pandemic reality is that church attendance has not rebounded as well as other aspects of our pre-COVID19 lives. Recent studies show, regardless of the size of
[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/23341217/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/3433802/custom-color/87A93A” height=”100″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] Dan Turner is the founding pastor of Northwest Community Church in Washington, DC. Tim Fox is the District Superintendent of the South Coastal District of the Wesleyan Church. https://dying2restart.org https://www.timfox.online Let us hear from you: podcast@worldmethodist.org www.worldmethodist.org Connect with Rob on Social Media: @DrRobHaynes Find us on Social Media:
Scripture focus: It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when
[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/23179223/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/3433802/custom-color/87A93A” height=”100″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] Michael Beck is Michael is currently the Director of the Fresh Expressions House of Studies at United Theological Seminary. Director of Re-Missioning for Fresh Expressions US, and Cultivator of Fresh Expressions for the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. https://michaeladambeck.com Let us hear from you: podcast@worldmethodist.org www.worldmethodist.org Connect
Romans 12:10 Words are a funny thing. Not just words on their own, but the ways we choose to use words and give meaning to them. For instance: a young lady meets a young man and they begin going out on dates. Then they become “exclusive.” Pretty soon the pressure begins to build as the young lady and the young
[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/23040752/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/3433802/custom-color/87A93A” height=”100″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] Natasha Dongell is the lead and founding pastor of Follow Church. https://followchurch.com Let us hear from you: podcast@worldmethodist.org www.worldmethodist.org Connect with Rob on Social Media: @DrRobHaynes Find us on Social Media: Facebook Twitter Instagram Check out this episode!
Scripture Focus: For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me. (Matthew 25:35-36, NLT) This month
[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/22830359/height/100/width//thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/3433802/custom-color/87A93A” height=”100″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] David Grant is the Home Pastor at 12 Stone Church in the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area. www.12stone.com/home Let us hear from you: podcast@worldmethodist.org www.worldmethodist.org Connect with Rob on Social Media: @DrRobHaynes Find us on Social Media: Facebook Twitter Instagram Check out this episode!
We work so hard to keep Holy Week well-orchestrated: bulletins pristine, lilies in place, songs rehearsed. It’s an important celebration in the life of a church – in the life of The Church; a highlight of the liturgical calendar. We should have our vestments ready, Easter baskets ready, shoes by the door, hearts rightly adorned and aligned. Ham or lamb
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