Healthy Leadership Formation Takes Time
One of my favorite arenas of reading is any book that wrestles with the integration of spiritual formation and leadership development (or some version of those two arenas). A while back, I read David...
View ArticleSpiritual Direction: Nurturing Our Uniqueness
I was reviewing some of my recent reading and came across this great word from Eugene Peterson about the gift of spiritual direction, especially when we’ve been down the road with Christ for a while....
View ArticlePatience: An Unhurried Virtue
Hurry is a primary problem among Christian leaders and continues to grow. The fruit of the Spirit most related to unhurry is patience. Here are a few thoughts about patience in life and ministry. When...
View ArticleSpiritual Direction & Prayer
There is a great collection of classic excerpts on theme of spiritual direction from classic writers by Jerome Neufelder and Mary C. Coelho simply titled, Writing on Spiritual Direction. It’s been out...
View ArticleEntitlement and Grace
I was recently reading the parable of the landowner and the vineyard (Mt 20:1-16). This is the story in which a landowner hires workers in the early morning, then more at midday, then again more at...
View ArticleClassic Spiritual Counsel for Anxiety
I love reading classic letters of spiritual direction. The quotation below is a piece of classic counsel for “nerves” (which, I think, would probably correspond to what we would call “anxiety” today)....
View ArticleHow Do I Begin My Day with an Awareness of God?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a little book entitled, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible. It was shortly after this book came out that the Nazis prohibited him from any further publications. I was...
View ArticleThe Courage to Care
Elton Trueblood continues to be an author of influence in my life. The words below are more than fifty years old, yet are timely to me today: “A prominent philosopher of England has suggested the...
View ArticleFaith Like an Iceberg
Weird title, I know. It comes from something I reread in Elton Trueblood’s sermon “The Discipline of Discipleship”— “…we know that our public religious life is likely to be thin and shallow if the...
View ArticleThe Real Value of Relationships
Here are some insights from Kosuke Koyama’s book Three Mile An Hour God. I think you’ll appreciate what he has to say here about the real costs of technology and the real value of human relationships:...
View ArticleHow to be the Best Version of Child-like
Enjoy these wonderful words from John Chryssavgis on “leastness,” and G. K. Chesterton on the youthful vitality of God Himself: “The kingdom is already granted to little children, not, I think because...
View ArticleWhy Do We Resist Solitude?
I lead many retreats with solitude and silence with God at the heart of them. It feels like a fringe benefit of my ministry role. I love guiding others in vital encounter with an unfailingly loving...
View ArticleA Christmas Prayer
May you sense the coming of Christ into your lives this day as you celebrate His coming into this world as a child more than two thousand years ago. May the Spirit of Christ fill your hearts as you...
View ArticleListening: The Right Kind of Hurry
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because our anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires....
View ArticleHow to Deal with Obsessive Thoughts
A while back, I read Gabor Maté’s book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. In it, he talks about his work with drug addicts, but also speaks quite transparently about his own addiction to purchasing...
View ArticleEven Your Worst Can Be Transformed
You may be aware of the musical tradition of Taizé—simple contemplative songs sung in community. Brother Roger was the founder of this community in Taizé, France. Here is an extended entry from his...
View ArticleDo Our Methods Matter?
A while back, I came across this on Twitter: “The message is sacred but the method can be changed” (quoting Brian Houston, Pastor of Hillsong Church). If I were to paraphrase what I think he is...
View ArticleGod Loves Beauty
I recently browsed some quotations from Frank Laubach’s classic book, Letters by a Modern Mystic. I love how this one illustrates the connection between enjoying God and seeing the world around me...
View ArticleA Victory of Transforming Love
“We must not forget that, in the Roman Empire, Christ won, and won against tremendous odds. He won because the faith in Christ really changed the lives of countless weak men and made them bold as...
View ArticleMinistering from Solitude
“Solitude spiritualizes the whole [person], transforms [them], body and soul, from a carnal to a spiritual being. It can only do so in the Spirit of Christ Who elevates our whole being in God, and does...
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