Category Archives: Christian Life

Is God leading you?

How do we seek God’s guidance?  How do we know that we have received it?  For people who have been around church for awhile, the first question yields some fairly common answers: pray, ask others to pray, fast, study Scripture. … Continue reading

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Questions We Bring to the Bible

In a devotional book that I occasionally use, I recently read the following quote from Lee Strobel: When we talk about Christianity being true the unchurched person of today shrugs with disinterest.  ‘You have your truth, I have mine.’  What … Continue reading

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How to Make Changes in Your Life

How do we change something in our lives?  Most of us have a pretty clear plan if we want something to change in our lives.  We go through most (if not all) of the following steps: Identify the problem: lose … Continue reading

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Are we trying to grow churches where everyone looks the same?

I recently heard about a church which has had dramatic growth in recent years, which many of us would define as success, and is also in the process of building a new building, which we would also say is a … Continue reading

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The Temptations of Ministry

Our staff is finishing a series of discussions on Henri Nouwen’s book In the Name of Jesus.  The book was originally a series of lectures given by Nouwen after he began his ministry with the L’Arche community in Toronto.  For more … Continue reading

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Essential Books – Part 6

My favorite “spiritual” writer is the late Henri J. M. Nouwen.  Nouwen was a Catholic priest and a professor at  Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard.  He left the academic life to live in one of the L’Arche communities to work … Continue reading

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Caine’s Arcade

I first heard about this short film on NPR last week.  It’s already viral so I’m sure many have already seen it.  There’s something about the gospel hidden in this film.

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Metaphor for Easter

The pastor says this is a metaphor for the Easter message.  Sounds more like a metaphor for American consumerism to me.

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A Big God

This talk was given at Duke University Chapel by the pre-eminent OT scholar Walter Brueggemman.  My reaction to LeAnn after I watched it was that sometimes I think the scholars that we would sometimes label “liberal” worship a bigger God … Continue reading

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What Is Truth?

On this Good Friday, I want to share a short excerpt from a meditation I gave at one of our Passion Week services this week.  I was retelling the story of Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus.  Back and forth Pilate and … Continue reading

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