Soul
A Place for Christian Refugees
For the past several years, I have taught a class at our church called "For Skeptics Only." Usually populated with spouses and friends of church attenders, they all had one thing in common: disbelief about the Christian faith. Since it was a class for non-Christians we told everyone up front that if they were Christians we would kick them out. And boy was it easy to spot them, with their ironically serious questions about the rapture and whether or not we would still be here for the tribulation. You might imagine how difficult it would be to talk about whether or not the Bible was true with a room full of skeptics when you have a Christian in the room.
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: What spiritual and contemplative disciplines do you practice? What are some you want to try?
The Know-it-all Generation
Just the act of being born ensures that you, like every person who ever lived, are in for a fight. Because after being born, you have to deal with those not-so-little hurdles called family, school, adolescence (aka “the ugly years”), fashion, love (or lack thereof), faith, doubt, work, money, traffic, diapers, war, natural disasters, illness, aging, taxes and death.
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: Who are the mentors in your life? What is the greatest lesson or truth you have learned from them?
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: How has being in ministry affected your rest and your health? How can you do a better job of making time for rest?
Sprinting a Marathon
I found out this year what makes a pastor jealous. Tell a pastor about a vacation you just had, a sabbatical you have coming up or how you’ve taken time to rediscover the weekend, and you’ll find another pastor wrought with envy. It’s more than just the usual person mildly amused that someone they know has some vacation days ahead. The pastors and leaders I am meeting are desperate for someone around them to call timeout so they can finally catch their breath. Some are aware of the condition of their mind, body and soul. The ones who are aware they need a break of some kind seem to make incremental, as well as intentional, steps in healthier directions. The question is whether that slow change will happen in time to keep them from developing high blood pressure. I don’t know what it says that most pastors I know have suffered from physical heart pains of some kind. Have you ever wondered if a more radical shift of rest is necessary so you can stay the course, or...
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: Do you consider grace and law as opposites? Where does that theological view stem from?
Andy Stanley on Preaching Grace
Andy Stanley is the senior pastor of North Point Community Church, Browns Bridge Community Church, Buckhead Church and Watermarke Church in and around Atlanta. As separate campuses of the same church, they comprise the second largest church in America. Stanley is also the author of more than 20 books, including last fall’s The Grace of God. We sat down with him to discuss grace, legalism, holiness and why Christians can never figure out the balance. Why do you think we have a tendency to consider grace and law as opposites? I think in the church world we contrast grace and law because Paul did in the book of Romans, and he presents them as two different approaches to life. But I think his attempt to reconcile the two oftentimes gets confused and we see them as polar opposites when in fact there’s really not an actual tension between the two.* I think one of the most overlooked sequences of events is the order in which God...
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: What are some verses you have misinterpreted or inaccurately defended? How can you be more careful in your reading of scripture?
Butchering the Bible Out of Context
Though the Bible in its original form is inerrant, our interpretation of it is not. Being in a position of trying to understand God's word is an intense place to stand. How we think about the Bible affects how we think about it applying to our lives. Though all of us carry that responsibility differently, the weight of seeking to translate the message and the meaning of the story of God requires a sober assessment of what we’re actually reading. And especially how we apply it to our lives. The truth is, I could find a section of Scripture and use it out of context to imply just about anything I wanted. I can make the Bible seem to support modern polygamy, slavery, hatred, homophobia, violence against women and even crusades against people of other faiths. This is not a hypothetical conversation. The Bible has become a tool for many to push selfish agendas that don’t represent the heart of God.
The Danger of Being the Same
Growing up, I thought the end goal of life was a homogeneity of belief in the people around me. I expected everyone to draw the same conclusions from the things they heard, read or saw as I did. But, recently, I’ve come to believe that diversity is a beautiful thing because it helps us see God more clearly. Now, before I go further, let me say there is a limitation to the liberality with which we can apply this principle of diversity of opinion. I do believe there has to be a strong foundation of biblical understanding and maturity in an individual as they think about diversity—or else the likely end will be that destructive lack of ideals called pluralism. My comments here are more applicable to the expression of those shared biblical principles which all Christians cling to.
Lent and Fasting from the Voice in Your Head
We have arrived at Lent, a 40-day season that ends the day before Easter. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter when Christians sought to purge their lives of anything that hindered their devotion to Christ. By observing the 40 days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for 40 days. A common practice associated with Lent over the centuries had been the act of fasting or self-denial. The most common form of fasting during Lent is fasting from food, of which there are many variations such as abstaining from meat or omitting an item or two from your diet that you are accustomed to eating daily. The idea is that every time you get an appetite for one of these items items, you are reminded of your fast, which prompts you to embrace the spiritual significance of the season. In essence, your hunger pains serve as the Southwest Ding that draws your attention to Christ.
Life as Liturgy
I live liturgy. Every morning, I wake up to a cup of coffee, a bowl of cereal and a shower. I take the J Church light rail downtown to my office, where I open my MacBook and begin my day. My daily liturgy.* We are a liturgical people in the sense that we live by habits, practices, rituals and routines that give form to our days. And all of our churches are liturgical—all of them—in the sense that each has a certain set of guiding practices and rhythms that form people. Let’s be honest: The debate is not whether or not our churches do liturgy. The debate is about how we understand and practice it.
The True Mission of a Leader
Most churches, ministries and organizations in general would love to have the best high capacity leaders possible to fill the slots within their organizations. Unfortunately, organizations often overlook the necessity for those high capacity leaders to actually be leading at high capacity—and what it takes to get them there. I’ve always been intrigued by leaders, coaches and teams who use the phrase, “I want to be surrounded by the best!” You would think this should be an obvious or natural desire for all leaders. Think about it: When was the last time you heard a leader say, “I want to be surrounded by the mediocre!”? The reality is many leaders and organizations say they want to be surrounded by the best but instead settle for surrounding themselves with mediocrity. Although “best” is an elusive term, it’s still a goal organizations seek to obtain. “Best” is defined as, being of the highest quality, excellence, the best work, desirable, etc. With that...
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: What are some new (or old) spiritual disciplines you would like to try?
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: Which friendship or mentorship has most contributed to your success in ministry?
We've Got Issues
I met the only best friend I’ve ever had when I was 6 years old. Like a scene out of a movie, I’ll never forget Matthew walking toward me after church on a hot Sunday afternoon in Florida in 1984. He was wearing a three piece suit and looking like a three-foot-tall John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever. We immediately bonded over video games and college football. Eventually our families moved into the same neighborhood together where we spent our days building BMX tracks (thanks to the movie Rad) and starting karate clubs (thanks to the movie Karate Kid). For one of his birthdays, I wanted to sacrifice something sacred I owned and offer it to him as a present. I took out my collection of baseball cards and told him to choose any one of the cards I had as his birthday gift. He chose my 1977 Topps Andre Dawson rookie card, which happened to be my favorite. But it didn’t matter because I felt true joy in being able to share something with my closest friend that was...
3 Wrong Ways to Read the Bible
One of the most curious artifacts of my Bible-belted, Southern Baptist childhood was an activity called Bible Drill, in which kids in grades four through six compete on how well they know the Word of God. We’d be quizzed on our ability to quote verses, memorize references and identify passages. One of the coolest parts of the competition was a timed event where we had 10 seconds to locate a specific book of the Bible. We’d line up, facing a crowd of nervous parents, and the moderator would call out the get-your-Bibles-ready command: “Attention. Present swords. Begin!” And in a flurry, we’d scramble to locate, say, the book of Amos. I rocked Bible Drill. And weirdly, I still find that archaic phrase “present swords” fluttering through my mind, like song lyrics without a melody. There’s plenty of precedent for using Scripture as offensive weaponry, including the famous Armor of God passage in Ephesians 6. But we’ve taken that metaphor much further,...
Question of the Week
Each week, Neue asks a question that is meant to challenge, inspire and encourage today's ministry leaders. Feel free to respond and discuss in the comment section. This week, we want to know: How have you changed relationally since you've become more involved with ministry over the years?
Philip Yancey on Doubt
The popular author, journalist and speaker has always been known for his willingness to ask the tough questions. Where is God when it hurts? What if I’m disappointed with God? Does prayer really work? Millions of readers have sought answers and comfort in his books when they’ve faced tragedy, wrestled with doubt or just simply wanted to ask a few questions about God. Yancey spoke to us recently about keeping your faith even in good times, why doubt is never the end and how to gracefully minister to those who are hurting. Your newest book What Good is God? is an exploration of that question in the midst of difficult circumstances. What draws you to those big faith questions? Several things. When people do polls on why people do not believe, the problem of pain and suffering is one of the largest reasons for people not believing. If you look at some of those books coming out from the new atheists, God Is Not Good, God Is...
