Listen to John Ortberg’s words from this article about Dallas Willard after he died last week: Dallas had a remarkable mind… But his life and his heart were better than his mind. Wow. I pray that I will live in such a way that one day the same might be said about me: that my life and … Continue reading »
In doing any ministry that is geared toward serving and giving away resources, some people get concerned that they might get ripped off. Many times I’ve been asked, “Don’t you worry that some people will take advantage of what you are doing?” I respond, “No, I’m not worried. I know they will!” I think the … Continue reading »
I am possibly one of the more disciplined people I know. In fact, some of my friends seem to think I run my life on six-minute slots* after my lawyer days where one of those six-minute slots would set you back twenty quid or so. (I feel obliged always at this point to clarify that … Continue reading »
We all know people who spend a lifetime at the same job, or the same marriage, or the same profession, who are slowly, inexorably diminished in the process. They are persistent in the sense that they keep doing the same thing for many years, but we don’t particularly admire them for it. If anything we … Continue reading »
If the ministry is reduced to being primarily a helping profession then those who take up that office cannot help being destroyed if they have any integrity. For they will find themselves frustrated by a people not trained on the narrative of God’s salvation, not trained to want the right things rightly, but rather a … Continue reading »
Sometimes it takes years to write a blog post. This is one of those. And I suspect, irritatingly, that it is not even going to be that good! But I have waited long enough to write, long enough to hope to do justice to this concept. And now I need just to write, to explore … Continue reading »
We must recognize that Jesus himself walked for years with a small band of followers, and they still looked like the B-team when he left this earth. Halter and Smay in And: The Gathered and Scattered Church. What freedom in one short sentence!
Reblogged from The Art of Steering: I’m reading ‘The missional leader’ by Roxburgh and Romanuk, albeit painfully slowly. Something I’ve just read has triggered a response from me. On p.60, they say: ‘adaptive change happens by cultivating emergent zone culture. This involves the ability to create multiple experiments around the edge and then connect them with … Continue reading »
I’m going to go on the record here. I like reading John Piper. Not all the time nor do I agree with him all the time. But I am not one of those who vilifies his very name, as I have heard others do – particularly women who don’t like his complementarian stance. I happen … Continue reading »
Somehow November was a long month of recovering from too much output earlier in the autumn. Rather than writing new things and preaching lots of sermons, I’ve spent most of my time editing words, preparing Greek classes (for which read: re-educating myself about the intricacies of the grammar!) and also finishing books which had been … Continue reading »
