Ministry
Is “Submit” the Only Word We Can Say to Christian Wives?
She came to me cautiously. Clearly she was a woman distressed by her husband’s deep unkindness. Her story touched on pain, on fear, on confusion, on hatred. My heart ached with sympathy as her heart cried for help. I responded to her cautiously. Clearly she needed the true counsel of God’s Word to salve her [...]
Surviving Toxic Leaders: How to Work for Flawed People in Churches, Schools, and Christian Organizations
By Kenneth O Gangel, Wipf and Stock, 2008 Toxic leaders. The topic frequently pops up in both secular and religious news. Undeniably, toxic leaders even flourish within fundamental churches and organizations. Kenneth Gangel’s book, Surviving Toxic Leaders, answers two main questions: what does toxicity look like and how should people under toxic leaders respond effectively. The author [...]
The Harvey Dent Solution
Darkness rules in Gotham City. Although Batman’s vigilante attacks against evil have caused a glimmer of hope to shine in the hearts of the faithful, Gotham continues to be engulfed in corruption and crime. New district attorney, Harvey Dent, enters the story as the city’s great hope for addressing real problems. Touted as the “White [...]
Grace-Based Confession
Bobby Emberley is in his last year of his bachelor’s degree programme at Bible college in the US. As a “pastor’s kid” brought up in a fundamental church and Christian school, he is well acquainted with fundamentalism as an insider. When he shared this story with me a few weeks ago, I asked him to [...]
Christ-Centred Preaching in a Self-Centred Culture
‘For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord’ (2 Cor. 4:5 ) After a full life of ministry, the fifty year old Charles Spurgeon writes, ‘Souls by hundreds come to faith in Jesus under a ministry which sets Him forth clearly and constantly. Few remain unbelieving under a preacher whose great subject [...]
Feeling Guilty, Feeling Good: The Twisted Self-Tortures of Spiritual Addictions
Her stricken face is etched in my memory. An out-of-town visitor to our church, the troubled woman approached us in anguish after the service. Her problem? Our church’s failure to have an invitation at the end of the service so she could “get things right” with God. Spiritual addiction. It’s the idea that I can’t [...]
Pastor’s Wife or Superwoman?
The yellowing leaves of ancient trees shivered in the early autumn breeze. The picnic food was gone, but the church people lingered to chat. A woman with a troubled expression pulled up her chair next to mine. Intensely lowering her voice, she shared her concern. “We’ve been trying to find a pastor for a while, [...]
When a Backyard Barbecue Becomes a Heavenly Rendezvous
Do you ever come away from spending time with another Christian feeling unsatisfied with the quality of fellowship? That you talked about sports and politics or cooking and kids but never really touched on deeper topics of the heart? Do you long for conversations to stray past the safety zone of general topics and delve [...]
Cultivating a Culture of Growth in the Church
Another sad story of church stagnation. Faces lined with weary stubbornness dot the congregation. Numbers are depleted since our last visit a few years ago, but besides the smaller numbers, nothing has changed except the decorations in the church lobby. Knowing a little of the background of this once thriving church, I wonder what led [...]
Doubt: A Self Examination
This quote from Tim Keller’s The Reason for God has really challenged my thinking over the past two weeks: “A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do [...]
Bible Truths for the Right-Brained
Ever heard the joke “Left-handed people are the only people in their right minds”? Roger Sperry, who won a Nobel prize in 1981 for his work with split-brain research, is responsible for much of our understanding of how the two halves of the brain control different functions. In summarising some of his findings, Sperry wrote [...]
Anyone for Easter Eggs?
A reader of this blog has raised the question: “Do independent churches make too little of Easter?” On my way to church last Sunday I passed several children carrying palm branches to church for the Palm Sunday service. The sight of them was the first time I even thought of this special day in the [...]
