I have long felt like my calling in life has been to help change the mind of the church. Jesus made it clear that he came to proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God was near. The imperatives related to this declaration were for his followers to believe and repent (Mark 1). Repentance, while it means many things, at its simplest, most rendered definition it means to change one’s mind. I believe that is what the church in the West must do – change its mind regarding its identity.

Part of repentance means to turn from one direction to another. The negative side of the turning happens by deconstructing what has become of the church in what many would call Christendom. Though it is not the thrust of this post, the church must turn from its over-reliance on power and cultural control, it's political co-opting, and it's baptized mimicry of a consumer driven society (Have you visited many churches lately? IMHO, most churches are discipling people further into the consumer life, all the while Jesus actually calls us to deny ourselves and to daily take up our cross). read more

There’s nothing like spending a 24 hours with Doctors thinking you’ve had a heart attack to get you into a “thinking about your personal mortality” space.

I came across this lovely and challenging poem for Pentecost Sunday by Mark Berry (Here). 

Waiting, Waited, read more

While enjoying a wonderful break with my family in Seaside, Oregon, I was able to carve out enough time to read Henri Nouwen's perceptive book entitled, Discernment. In the book, he makes several statements regarding how he spent much of his life craving affirmation, attention and acceptance of others. read more

 One of the Psalms I used this morning for prayers was Psalm 66:4

“Come now and see the works of God, how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people.” read more

Desert father Abba Anthony said,

“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’ ” read more

The following are prayers we offered at Immanuel this morning, the 2nd Sunday of Lent. The text this morning was Mark 8:27-38. Feel free to pray along with us. Peace.

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embarrass [em-bar-uh s]: to cause confusion and shame to; make uncomfortably self-conscious; disconcert; abash

Awesome!

That is the only word I can come up with for it. Last night while teaching at Whitworth a couple of my students snickered to each other to which I asked, “Is there something I should know?” Well, there was something I should know, indeed! Apparently I had left my house for class with my shirt inside out. WHAT?!?! One of the students, attempting to swallow her laughter, gladly informed me of my oversight. read more

Do you wear skinny jeans or pleated pants?

Kind of a funny question, but those are the metaphors theologian Scot McKnight uses to describe two prevailing and popular views of the Kingdom of God in his book, Kingdom Conspiracy. The first view, skinny jeans, predictably represents a more current approach that frontloads public sector social justice activism, while often times bypassing the church. He writes, “Kingdom means good deeds done by good people (Christian or not) in the public sector for the common good.” (p.4) The second picture is, again predictably, a perspective that is more represented in “traditional” Christianity. He describes this group’s view by saying, “…the Kingdom is both present and future, and the kingdom is both a rule and reign.” (p. 9) read more

What would it be like for us if the harm we do with our words had immediate physical manifestations in the person we harm? In other words, if I gossiped about someone, they were to get a corresponding gash on their forehead.  Or if I were to slander someone with some awful, untrue statement to assuage a pain that I carry around, then the next time I saw them they walk up to me with a limp that was the result of my words.  What if I exploited someone through sarcasm to turn a joke in a group (which regularly happen both to me and from me), but actually harmed the person I was exploiting. What if they bent over with abdominal pain? Would it impact whether I continued to gossip, slander or exploit? Would it finally motivate me to stop, to measure my words, to repent?

What brought this picture to my  mind was Proverbs 12:18. It says, “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” read more