The Ache Is Not A Desire To Escape, It’s Homesickness (via Rebecca K Reynolds)
Rebecca K Reynolds explains the the desire to be with Christ is not something for which the disciple needs to feel guilty as if its an avoidance of the realities of life, rather the desire to be with...
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Preaching Unsuccess (via Chad Bird)
The church will gather together tomorrow to hear the news of the unsuccessful life. From Upside-Down Spirituality: Christianity has a God who knows that if the church runs the way of success, we’ll...
View ArticleWhere God Will Lead His People This Week (via Scotty Smith)
Scotty Smith offers a prayer about where God leads His people. Not where we’d go by our own decision, but it’s where we need to go. It’s written for a Monday, but as the week flows along you can see...
View ArticleWhat We Are
Disciples of Jesus are not subversives, we are not rebels, we are not anarchists; disciples of Jesus are light. That is how we are the means by which God changes the world.
View ArticleLong Term Expectation Produces Short Term Obediences (via Scott Hubbard)
The expectations of an impatient culture run counter to the reality that growth is a long term process. But the conviction of that long-term expectation does not manifest itself in frustration, or in...
View ArticleThe Church Is God’s Incubator For Making Disciples (via Stan Gale)
Stan Gale spent the days after his birth in an incubator. He received that life sustaining and growing support in isolation. As a disciple of Jesus we are told that we need support for our life to be...
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The Difference Between Following A Vocation And Volunteering (via Will Willimon)
Will Willimon’s memoir Accidental Preacher is an engaging collection of memories and observations. He tells the story, and the art of telling the story is as enjoyable as the stories themselves. In...
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When You’re A Disciple Of Jesus, There Will Be Bound To Be Bonfires (via Will...
If you think that becoming a disciple of Jesus will lead to a settled, monotonous, status-quo, life that you’re in control of, think again. From Will Willimon’s memoir, Accidental Preacher. It’s odd...
View ArticleLearning To Number Our Days (via Michael Kelley)
Michael Kelley writes a four point reflection on the phrase from the Psalms ‘teach us to number our days.’ Why? We naturally assume that there will always be tomorrow – that there will always be...
View ArticleLaundering Frantic Distraction From Christians (via Stephen McAlpine)
Stephen McAlpine writes about church as a place of focusses attention, not impatient demand. If Christians are to be salt and light, a non-anxious presence in an increasingly anxious culture then our...
View ArticleGood Churchmen (via David Burke)
It was good to see David Burke at the General Assembly of Australia this week. He and Paul Cooper were launching their book Read In The Light, a compilation of essays relating to the Declaratory...
View ArticleWhen Jesus Calls Us Out It’s Not For A Doctrine Test (via Winn Collier)
When Jesus restores Peter after his denial he does so not by questioning Peter’s knowledge, but Peter’s heart. From Winn Collier: Warming by the enemy’s fire, three critics posed Peter the most...
View ArticleRemembering The Saints
Tomorrow is a day when many many Christian Churches take time to remember faithful disciples of Jesus who have departed the Church on earth and have joined the Church in eternity. We will do so in...
View ArticleCongregational Life – A Place Where We Are Saved From Our Yearnings, Rather...
In a brief article at Christian Century, Craig Barnes writes about the disposition of wanting to protect people from their own hurt feelings, and how the life in the church is not meant to be place...
View ArticlePastoral Ministry Does Not Try To Save The Redeemed (via Henri Nouwen)
Henri Nouwen makes an important distinction about pastoral ministry. A contemplative is able to live fully in the moment, but not be ruled by, and reacting to, the anxiety of that moment. In that he is...
View ArticleThe Place Where Wounds Become Openings For A New Vision (via Henri Nouwen)
There is no place where wounds and pains are absent, even in the fellowship of the church. The Gospel enables the wounds to be openings where light breaks through, the pains a common pointer to future...
View ArticleIf You Arrive At Church Early (via Cornerstone Community Church)
Here are some benefits of turning up to church early. (Roughly defined as more than 60-120 seconds before the appointed starting time, though in reality that’s actually arriving dead on time. Early...
View ArticleThe Double-Edged Sword Of Spiritual Tradition (via Winn Collier)
The temptation to set use Bible as a buttress against the imperative of the Gospel is strong. Of course there is no contradiction between the following Jesus and the Bible correctly read. From Winn...
View ArticleJesus Is The God We Need (via Winn Collier)
Jesus experienced life with human emotions. In addition to knowing our need for salvation, Jesus fully experienced everything that we need to be saved from. From Winn Collier. Jesus did not come to...
View ArticleThe Dissonance Between What I Expect From Jesus And What Jesus Actually Does...
Following Jesus is not thinking that everything you think is what he thinks. Following Jesus is having your perceptions of self, others, and living challenged and changed. From Winn Collier. Do we...
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