At the heart of all temptations, as we see here [in the temptations of Jesus], is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary; if not actually superfluous and annoying in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building our own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside s an illusion – that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazarath
Category: Great Quotes
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December 18, 2011
The Temptatons of Jesus and our Temptations
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September 23, 2011
Measuring Church Effectiveness
What he said… “Ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing. It’s disciples. Your church is only as good as its disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs or property are: If you’re disciples are passive, needy, consumerist, and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, your church is not good.” - Neil Cole (not sure what book this is from)
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March 29, 2011
It’s not me, It’s you: Being Part of the God’s Family
A prayer from this mornings reading in Common Prayer Lord, our efforts at faithfulness are fraught with failure more often than we care to admit. Thank you that your love for us is never wasted. Keep us rooted in your word, eating at your table, and praying by your Spirit, so that we may remember when we fail that we are part of your family not because we deserve to be but because you want us. Amen. May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you; may he bring you home...Read More →
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February 28, 2011
Submission in Leadership
One of the major early themes in The Imitation of Christ is that of humility. I will be honest. I am not a big fan of humility. Humility is one of those things that constantly seems desperately out of grasp. Just when I feel like I am getting close to understanding it and getting it, it moves further away from me. As a pastor however, I know its the one thing that I need the most. It is the one thing that fights against most pastor’s greatest temptation: Pride. It is a strange thing that pastors and leaders struggle so much with pride. We are supposed to be the ones who are most grounded in the scriptures, grace and truth. I think therein lies the...Read More →
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January 21, 2011
Balcony-Type Christianity?
We just started a study of the book of Mark at The Well. Been reading George Ladd’s A Theology of the New Testament and thought I would share this gem with you, “Mark campaigns against balcony-type Christians who are too high for mission and discipleship that in Mark’s terms necessarily involves cross-bearing and self-sacrifice.” One of the things I am getting as I read Mark so far is that the disciples themselves didn’t understand what they were getting themselves into. Sure, they showed great faith by dropping their nets and leaving their lives and family behind to follow Jesus. But, they didn’t count the cost as we see them constantly misunderstanding what they were getting themselves into throughout the rest of the book. Ladd continues,...Read More →
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December 7, 2010
Are People Generally Screw Ups?
As you can tell I’ve been reading the book by Margaret J Wheatley called, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. I can’t say enough good things about this book. That’s probably why I keep on quoting from it. I think she has some important things to say to us, especially those of us who are leading church communities and other non-profits. Read this whole quote, it’s worth it… If you look around at most organizations and communities, people are still being kept in boxes. They are not invited to contribute, to create, or to care about each other. Instead, it’s assumed that people must be policed into good behavior. Endless policies and laws attempt to make us behave properly. Yet very few people tolerate...Read More →
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December 6, 2010
Leadership and Control
Some great quotes from a great book by Margaret J Wheatley called, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. Trying to be an effective leader in this machine story is especially exhausting. He or she is leading a group of lifeless, empty automatons who are just waiting to be filled with vision and direction and intelligence. The leader is responsible for providing everything: the organizational mission and values, the organizational structure, the plans, the supervision. The leader must also figure out, through clever use of incentives or coercives, how to pump energy into this lifeless mass. Once the pump is primed, he must then rush hither and yon to make sure that everyone is clanking along in the same direction, at the established speed, with...Read More →
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April 25, 2010
C.S. Lewis on the Natural Self
The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In...Read More →
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March 25, 2010
David Bosch on The Church and the World
David Bosch outlines five important characteristics of the church’s relationship to the world in his landmark book “Transforming Mission.” This stuff is so fantastic (and I think important) that I am just going to copy what he wrote here. Also, if you haven’t read this book. Get it and spend the next three years slowing reading through it. It’s that good. The church cannot be viewed as the ground of mission, it cannot be considered the goal of mission either – certainly not the only goal. The church should continually be aware of its provisional character. The church is not the kingdom of God. The church is “on earth the seed and the beginning of that kingdom” and “the sign and instrument of the reign of God that is to come. The church...Read More →
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March 22, 2010
Practice Resurrection by Eugene Peterson
Eugene Peterson’s latest book, Practice Resurrection is fantastic. I don’t know how else to say it. An excerpt, “Church is the appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practice a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the biggest headlines: death of nations, death of civilization, death of marriage, death of careers, obituaries without end. Death by war, death by murder, death by accident, death by starvation. Death by electric chair, injection and hanging. The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and partciate in resurrection life, life out of death, life that trumps death, life that is the last word. Jesus Life…” He goes on the point out that the church is far from the utopian...Read More →
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July 27, 2009
Whole Life Generosity
In my sermon this week, on the parable of the Foolish Rich Man, I referenced this quote from Tom Sine’s book, The New Conspirators. I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who is wondering what kinds of things are going on in some awesome Christian communities these days. Tom writes, “If our view of the Good Life is focused on accumulating consumer goods and experiences for ourselves, instead of looking for opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others, we could totally miss what this journey is really all about. We are indeed called to live under God’s rule, practicing economic generosity and justice-making with all that God has entrusted us. We are invited to join so many who...Read More →
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May 23, 2009
Pastors in their Offices
“The initial locus and primary focus of [pastors] work is in their offices. Time-management studies again and again have confirmed that pastors invest a large percentage of their time in their offices – in meetings, in doing administrative work, and in taking care of administrative details…Pastors continue to spend so much time their offices because it is a familiar and habitual behavior pattern that has been nurtured and reinforced for many, many years. And the foundation underlying that behavior pattern is an understanding of the nature of leadership that is no longer helpful.” - Kennon Callahan, Effective Church Leadership Of course. I wrote this post from my office (which is actually a starbucks).
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May 21, 2009
What Role Does Confession Play in Your Life?
I’ve been working with someone in our church to take a long hard look at the culture and practices of we’ve developed in our church around the issue of spiritual formation, spiritual direction and discipleship. In this, I’ve been doign some reading about how other denominations and traditions have approached this topic throughout the history of the church. One book that has been immensely helpful is Gary Moon and David Benner’s book Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls. In this book, they give an overview of how spiritual direction is approached from different traditions. One thing that has surprised me has been how almost every tradition has a strong emphasis on some form of confession. Now, this probably shouldn’t have surprised me. But, its no secret...Read More →
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April 25, 2009
Surprised by Scripture
Eugene Peterson is one of those writers who has the uncanny knack to take my deepest struggles with leadership, faith, spirituality and speak at directly at them. One of those books is called Working the Angles. That’s one of those books I read at least once a year. Each time I do, I end up with a knot in my stomach because I am so convicted. I’ve been slowly working through his recent book, Eat This Book and I’m really enjoying it. He writes, “Barth insists that we do not read this book and the subsequent writings that are shaped by it in order to find how how to get God into our lives, get him to participate in our lives. No. We open this...Read More →
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March 21, 2009
Three Questions that Become Answers (1)
Been really enjoying the book The Monkey and the Fish by Dave Gibbons. It’s one of those books that I will pass on to a few people and simply say “see, this is what I’ve been trying to talk about.” In chapter 5 he goes through three questions that are helpful for pastors and leaders (and churches) to ask as they look for answers to the mission and vision of their church. The first question is: “Where is Nazarath?” Now, this might seem like a strange question (it did to me at first). But when you begin to answer it, its very insightful. In the Bible, the question is asked about Jesus, “Can anything good come from Nazarath?” Dave gives another way of asking this...Read More →
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February 11, 2009
Limitations
I turned 32 today. Not sure what to think about that. But I can confess that one begins to think more intentionally about life the older one gets. Of course, its not like I am old. There are plenty of you reading this who are much older than me! Recently, I read a post from Bob Hyatt where he noted the following quote. “There is something deeply spiritual about honoring the limitations of our lives and the boundaries of what God has given us to do as leaders. Narcissistic leaders are always looking beyond their sphere of influence with visions of grandiosity far out of proportion to what is actually being given. Living within our limits means living within the finiteness of who we are...Read More →
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January 3, 2009
The Task of the Church
From Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics v.4.3.2 – The Doctrine of Reconciliation To sum up, we may say there is committed to it the gospel, I.e. The good, glad tidings of Jesus Christ, of the real act and true revelation of the goodness in which God has willed to make and has in fact made Himself the God of man and man His man. This great Yes is its cause. It has no other task besides this. (page 800)
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December 26, 2008
Resident Aliens in Suburbia
I’ve been reading Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon over the break. Chapter four is brilliant. This year I have done a lot of thinking about the Church as a counter-cultural community. I think this is always necessary and I’m certain there is a desperate need for those of us in a suburban context to be intentional about re-imagining a life together that is in fact counter-cultural (in the way of Jesus). Of course, we don’t have to re-imagine out of nothing, without any direction. We have the witness of Isreal, Jesus, the disciples, the church and a hope of a New Heavens and New Earth to guide this process (you know, all the stuff found in the Scriptures). I’ve spoken about this...Read More →
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December 12, 2008
The Church Informing the Powers…
Sometimes all you need is a little quote from NT Wright to get your blood flowing… “It is by the Church living as the one believing community, in which barriers of race, class, gender and so forth are irrelevant to membership and to holding of office, that the principalities and powers are informed in no uncertain terms that their time is up, that there is indeed a new way to be human.” NT Wright in What Saint Paul Really Said (161)
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November 21, 2008
The Pastor’s Responsibility
A friday rebuke/correction/encouragement from our friend Eugene Peterson, “It is the pastor’s responsibility to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades.” From Working the Angles
