In the Old Testament Book of Esther, we are told a story about how the very existence of a certain group of people was threatened because of the anger of one man towards them. This man made threats to wipe…
Top 10 unhealthy negative reasons people are NOT leaving Your Church
Who in your church do you wish would leave? Yes, I know, that is not a Christ-like attitude. But it is true. Everyone has someone they wish would leave. The church would be a better church without them. There is…
But is it true?
What’s going on at Rolling Stone magazine? If you have paid any attention to the national news lately, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the now-infamous story published by Rolling Stone purporting to expose the awful rape culture at the University of…
Skin tax
By K. Jason Coker In 1996, I was a summer missionary in the Philippines. I had no idea how much that summer would change my life. One night my partner and I stayed out too late visiting friends in the…
Vision and venture at Advent
By Bill Wilson It was Vaclav Havel who described the dilemma every leader has with the issue of vision: Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must…
There is purpose
There’s an argument going on. Sometimes you have to listen closely, but it’s rumbling beneath the polite noise of our sophisticated society like the background radiation of the Big Bang, filling every black hole as it sweeps across an infinite…
Top ten healthy, positive reasons people are NOT leaving your church
Surely you have heard the organizational management idea that you want to get the wrong people off of the bus and the right people on the bus. Well, this is an article on why the right people stay on the…
A nation confronted by conscience
By Bill Leonard “Our enemies act without conscience. We must not. This executive summary of the [Senate Intelligence] Committee’s report makes clear that acting without conscience isn’t necessary, it isn’t even helpful, in winning this strange and long war we’re…
A failure of imagination on reading Scripture, part 2
In the first part of this post, I made the point that God’s word (and by association, God himself) often gets a bad rap. But, I argued, this is more a function of a failure on the part of his…
Jumping in, feet first
By Amy Butler I’m wondering this week if we’re having enough difficult conversations. Horrible images on the news, protests in the streets, a growing awareness — if we didn’t know it before — that all is certainly not right with…
Why people are NOT leaving your church
The Internet is full of articles about why people are leaving church—or never attending church in the first place. Some are called “nones” and recently many people are using the term “dones” for those who are finished with church—at least…
In latest Exodus film, God’s a petulant boy, while Moses and Ramses play macho head games
Ridley Scott directs great movies. He won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2000 for Gladiator, and his films Alien and Blade Runner are science fiction classics. Scott has a way of offering grand spectacles on the screen and telling…