Perspectives
Sin Is Not a Dirty Word

Sin Is Not a Dirty Word

    Recently, I had coffee with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long while. I knew her from years ago, when we served together with our husbands in the same ministry. She had moved to Arizona to join an art colony, and her life has taken many different turns...

The Decline and Fall of Seminaries

The Decline and Fall of Seminaries

    I am not a teacher, but an awakener. Robert Frost In the medieval world, thinking about God was done in a monastery where it was bathed in a liturgical setting amid devotional practices. In the modern world, thinking about God is done in a university...

The Perfect Church Part 2 – We Deal with Our Sin

The Perfect Church Part 2 – We Deal with Our Sin

    As a whole, we typically do not like to deal with our own mess. I don’t think anyone truly loves admitting that they are wrong. I hate being the one to raise my hand and say, “Hey, I’m sorry - please forgive me for ______.” Just this weekend I remember...

The Perfect Church Part 1

The Perfect Church Part 1

    The one phrase I’ve been told over and over and over again throughout my time in the church world is: “There is no perfect church.” I hate this statement; passionately hate it when people say this to me. Why? Because it makes us sound lazy. It allows us...

Budget Blunders

Budget Blunders

    Whether your church has sixty-five people or sixty-five hundred, money matters. Even so, many pastors tell me that they find budgeting to be—at best—a necessary-but-distracting process. I’ve never heard a young pastoral candidate confide that the initial...

Peace in our times requires salvation and the restoration of virtue

Peace in our times requires salvation and the restoration of virtue

     As we begin another presidential election year, followers of Christ may have sentiments like recent election cycles. Many of us see both good and bad in the competing positions of those seeking office, but we despair over the incivility and contempt...

Encouragement For Leaders – ALONE (Part Two)

Encouragement For Leaders – ALONE (Part Two)

“Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted.” Psalms 25:16 Alone! Why do I feel so alone in the leadership of this ministry? With dozens of people around me, I feel separate, isolated and cut off. What am I supposed to do, Lord? Do I carry this...

Please Don’t Ask Me To Tithe

Please Don’t Ask Me To Tithe

There is no subject in the modern day church more polarizing than tithing. Even the very mention of the word brings strong emotional responses from both ministers and members. No one seems to be opposed to its validity, only its necessity.   Most group...

The Beautiful and Terrifying Silence You Need

The Beautiful and Terrifying Silence You Need

Tramping through the snow, I stop for a moment. Everything around me is perfectly still. Only my footprints break the surface of the pure, white snow, and even these are behind me and out of sight. As far as my eyes can see, the world is untouched, asleep. The...

The View from Rock Bottom

The View from Rock Bottom

When a friend of mine received a difficult diagnosis, she chose to share it on Facebook as she tried to process her feelings. She was grappling with her new reality: At barely 21 years of age she had a chronic, incurable condition, one that meant coping with daily...

Sin Is Not a Dirty Word

Sin Is Not a Dirty Word

    Recently, I had coffee with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long while. I knew her from years ago, when we served together with our husbands in the same ministry. She had moved to Arizona to join an art colony, and her life has taken many different turns...

The Decline and Fall of Seminaries

The Decline and Fall of Seminaries

    I am not a teacher, but an awakener. Robert Frost In the medieval world, thinking about God was done in a monastery where it was bathed in a liturgical setting amid devotional practices. In the modern world, thinking about God is done in a university...

The Perfect Church Part 2 – We Deal with Our Sin

The Perfect Church Part 2 – We Deal with Our Sin

    As a whole, we typically do not like to deal with our own mess. I don’t think anyone truly loves admitting that they are wrong. I hate being the one to raise my hand and say, “Hey, I’m sorry - please forgive me for ______.” Just this weekend I remember...

The Perfect Church Part 1

The Perfect Church Part 1

    The one phrase I’ve been told over and over and over again throughout my time in the church world is: “There is no perfect church.” I hate this statement; passionately hate it when people say this to me. Why? Because it makes us sound lazy. It allows us...

Budget Blunders

Budget Blunders

    Whether your church has sixty-five people or sixty-five hundred, money matters. Even so, many pastors tell me that they find budgeting to be—at best—a necessary-but-distracting process. I’ve never heard a young pastoral candidate confide that the initial...

Peace in our times requires salvation and the restoration of virtue

Peace in our times requires salvation and the restoration of virtue

     As we begin another presidential election year, followers of Christ may have sentiments like recent election cycles. Many of us see both good and bad in the competing positions of those seeking office, but we despair over the incivility and contempt...

Encouragement For Leaders – ALONE (Part Two)

Encouragement For Leaders – ALONE (Part Two)

“Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted.” Psalms 25:16 Alone! Why do I feel so alone in the leadership of this ministry? With dozens of people around me, I feel separate, isolated and cut off. What am I supposed to do, Lord? Do I carry this...

Please Don’t Ask Me To Tithe

Please Don’t Ask Me To Tithe

There is no subject in the modern day church more polarizing than tithing. Even the very mention of the word brings strong emotional responses from both ministers and members. No one seems to be opposed to its validity, only its necessity.   Most group...

The Beautiful and Terrifying Silence You Need

The Beautiful and Terrifying Silence You Need

Tramping through the snow, I stop for a moment. Everything around me is perfectly still. Only my footprints break the surface of the pure, white snow, and even these are behind me and out of sight. As far as my eyes can see, the world is untouched, asleep. The...

The View from Rock Bottom

The View from Rock Bottom

When a friend of mine received a difficult diagnosis, she chose to share it on Facebook as she tried to process her feelings. She was grappling with her new reality: At barely 21 years of age she had a chronic, incurable condition, one that meant coping with daily...

Helping Your Small Group Thrive

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