Suffering is one of the most common reasons people doubt God. If God is so loving, how can such bad things happen? Trite statements by Christians only make this worse: Something good will come out this, just wait. God has a purpose for everything. Something good will come out of rape, child abuse, or the […]
4 Soul-Level Ways to Avoid Ministry Burnout
Ministry burnout; despair; discouragement. This 3-headed monster and its ugly cousins usually come visit me when I ponder how much “bad” is out there in contrast to my ability to do anything about it. The Bible commands me to do something about it, but that can’t mean I’m to live in debilitating despair, right? Because […]
What does the Bible say about the Trinity?
What does the Bible say about the Trinity? The Best Way to Explain the Trinity The Trinity. How can such a core doctrine of the Christian faith be so confusing? And why does it even matter? The doctrine of the Trinity is the understanding that God is 1 essence and 3 persons (God the Father, […]
Survey: You’re Probably Too Busy to Enjoy God
I’m re-reading Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry by Ruth Haley Barton for the third time in 2015. No book has brought such transformational change to my leadership and walk with Christ as this one. I’ll be doing a full review of the book later this week. Here’s […]
The Struggles of Being a Pastor
As I pastor, I typically have thick skin. But there are definitely days, and weeks, where the skin gets thin and things hurt more than normal. Or when enough things pile up to pierce the toughness that is typically there. Many pastors I know are like me in that if 99 things are going well […]
Reflections from day 1 of the Justice Conference: Martin Luther King
When we think of social justice, we often don’t think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And when we think of Martin Luther King, we often don’t think about how sold out for Jesus this man was. In my first session of the day at the Justice Conference, Paul Louis Metzger played a 5 minute […]