“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). These words from Hebrews should bring us great comfort. Often we forget this and begin asking, “how will God respond to me, how will God respond to my sin, how will God respond to my turning away?” This short verse is a direct reminder of how God responds to us. When we read the stories of Jesus in the Gospels, we know how God Read More …
John Wesley, in a journal article dating October 6, 1774 wrote the following. I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And, 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side. In light Read More …
I’ve had the urge to write this post because recently I have been at gatherings with pastors and seminarians where the topic of hell was raised (mainly due to the recent lectionary texts that mention it). In every one of these gatherings, there was a small contingent of people who gave a little dismissive smirk, nod, and wink when hell was mentioned-as if to say that’s a cute antiquated piece of Christianity that we shouldn’t Read More …
A friend asked me what I thought about this article- Youth Pastor Panel: The Joys & Pains of Spiritual Growth. Here is my response: I think that self-care is an extremely important issue for people in ministry. Our job in ministry is to walk with people in their spiritual journeys and guide them along God’s path. So, I appreciate that this article realizes that in order to do this, the minister must first care for their own walk with Read More …
Today I had Jury Duty and I was actually kind of excited. I am in-between a youth ministry job and my internship for ordination so it is the first time that I’ve been able to actually serve on a jury. Some people only get out of Jury duty so I’m going to briefly outline the process. I received a summons in the mail with a date and instructions-call the day before and get the time Read More …
#progGOD Challenge #1 This is in response to Tony Jones blog post A challenge to Liberal Bloggers I agree with Tony wholeheartedly. …progressives have a God-talk problem. That is, progressives write lots of books and blog posts about social issues, the church, culture, and society. But we don’t write that much about God. That is, we don’t say substantive things about who God is, what God does, etc. I graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary and Read More …
While roaming the blogosphere today, Toney Jones pointed me toward Maria Popova’s article entitled Major Movements in Philosophy as Minimalist Geometric Graphics (click the link to see all the graphics). This series of graphics was created by Genis Carreras and I think they are for those who are visual learners. I have never been able to articulate major philosophical movements, but these graphics are helping me along. What do you think, are these as helpful Read More …
I find that my life is a series of restarts. I have again begun something that I really enjoy —Brazillian Jiu Jitsu. I started my BJJ training a little over three years ago in Montrose California at a place called The Fight Forum (it is now called M3). The very first person to show me any official BJJ techniques was Rudy Fischman. As he went through explaining each position and giving me a basic primer Read More …
Tim Ghali at Black Coffee reflections has some questions on how we act as consumers. I have these same questions. And so I find myself wondering … Can one blog about poverty on a Macbook while sitting in the suburbs? Can one wear an Invisible Children bracelet with a Swiss Army watch? Can one wear $100 jeans with TOMS Shoes? What should we wear? What should we drive? Where should we live? What should we consume? Read More …
Going on trips is a necessary part of any youth ministry. After my first couple years of taking youth to Christian Family Night at Magic Mountain, I learned that something freeing seems to happen on these trips–youth talk waiting in lines. At theme parks young people open up in ways that they just don’t do when sitting in an office. This applies to being in your office as well. I’ve found that if a youth Read More …