Suffering’s a Coming…

In the most recent edition of Christianity Today an article by Richard Foster entitled, “Spiritual Formation Agenda” notes the deep need of Christian communities to undertake the “heart work” or Christian character formation in the next 30 years, otherwise the church will “dry up and blow away.”  Foster writes of the need for growth in [...]

Read Full Post »

Book Reaction :: Brian McLaren’s Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices

Published this year, Brian McLaren’s Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Spiritual Practices marks the beginning of a series of books published by Tommy Nelson.  The Ancient Practices series will address disciplines such as fasting, contemplative prayer, fixed hour prayer, simplicity, spiritual reading, solitude, etc. for the purposes of transformation.  According to [...]

Read Full Post »

Fishing :: A Saturday Meditation

Something within fishermen tries to make fishing into a world perfect and apart–I don’t know what it is or where, because sometimes it is in my arms and sometimes in my throat and sometimes nowhere in particular except somewhere deep.  Many of us probably would be better fishermen if we did not spend more time [...]

Read Full Post »

Thoughts…Assessing our Times

It wasn’t long ago that I read in Os Guinness’ book The Call these important words:
Our challenge is not just to see the mistakes of a previous generation, obvious because not ours, but to see as well the problem of our own time, far closer and therefore harder to see.
Those words have hung with me now [...]

Read Full Post »

I Love Local (& My New Machine)

This weekend I’m in Peoria, IL for the Mike Hibit/Sarah Armstrong union.  Right now I’m writing from Kade’s Coffee and Tea, which is a local joint right up the street from my hotel.  This morning I logged on to the computer and googled the coffee shop options and decided to check this place out.  One [...]

Read Full Post »

On Pastoral Ministry

Three pastoral acts are so basic, so critical, that they determine the shape of everything else.  The acts of praying, reading Scripture, and giving spiritual direction.  Besides being basic, these three acts are quiet.  They do not call attention to themselves and so are often not attended to.  In the clamorous world of pastoral work [...]

Read Full Post »

Arcade Fire: Intervention

Intervention
Artist(Band):The Arcade Fire
The king’s taken back the throne
The useless seed is sown
When they say they’re cutting off the phone
I’ll tell ‘em you’re not home
No place to hide
You were fighting as a soldier on their side
You’re still a soldier in your mind
Though nothing’s on the line
You say it’s money that we need
As if we’re [...]

Read Full Post »