Subscribe to Posts
Subscribe to CommentsYour job, young pastor, is to maintain a non-anxious presence within the church you pastor. Knowing that we live in a time when anxiety is everywhere–a time when religion, in particular, has been whipped into a paralyzing frenzy of anxiety by those who are served by fear. Easier said than done, maintaining a non-anxious presence. Where to begin? Befriend the book of Psalms.
Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a myth about pastoring that will crush you if you mistake it for truth: when a pastor is doing his or her job, the church will be calm. Like any myth, this one endures because it distorts a truth: that good pastoring helps a church manage conflict, tension, and turmoil better than bad pastoring. (And that bad pastoring can generate enormous turmoil in a church.) The myth hides the reality that we pastor now in an age of very high anxiety, owing to a rapid pace of change all around us.
Read the rest of this entry »
Consider, young pastor, the word “reformation.” We inherited one. For 500 years, it’s been the ground beneath our feet. Assumed perspectives that shape the pastoral landscape. But the theological-pastoral ground beneath our feet isn’t a brass dance floor built on reinforced concrete anchored in unmovable moorings It’s more like, well, the ground beneath our feet: a set of plates that shift in response to subterranean forces. Like the bones of a newborn’s skull, subject to, admitting of, allowing for reformation as needed.
Read the rest of this entry »
Advice to young pastors: When someone with a major media platform like Pat Roberston asserts that Haiti’s founders made a pact with the devil, we’re not supposed to just swallow the assertion whole. It’s an extraordinary assertion, composed of four extraordinary necessities: 1.) that such a pact was actually made; 2.) that those who made it were authorized to act on behalf of the entire nation; 3.) that it’s being made by those authorized to enter into such a pact actually bound Haiti spiritually for the next 200 years (at least); 4.) that it had anything whatsoever to do with the recent earthquake. So far as I know, there’s no historical evidence that such a pact was made in the first place. A Haitian pastor with the Church of God, Jean R. Gelin, Ph.D, did his homework and could not come up with any credible historical source for the claim. And that’s just the first first of the four necessities. Why do we fall for these things?
Read the rest of this entry »
You’ve already heard what he said: the earthquake in Haiti is the outworking of a spiritual, not a geologic history. A supposed pact made with the devil around the time of Haiti’s birth as an independent nation. The wrong thing to say at the wrong time for so many reasons. But let me just point out one of those reasons: laziness. Robertson was cherry picking historical factoids.
Read the rest of this entry »
Been studying the sibling relationships in Genesis lately–Cain & Abel, Issac & Ishmael, Jacob & Esau, Jospeph & his brothers, all of ‘em wracked with rivalry. And the women in Genesis are no better, like Sarah & Hagar, Rachel & Leah. In fact, the twelve tribes were born in a riot of jealousy among and between Jacobs wives. The Bible is trying to tell us something here. Envy, rivalry between brothers-sisters-peers is running riot in the human condition. And God seems to inflame it with his willingness to prefer, to favor, to choose.
Read the rest of this entry »
In case you haven’t noticed, your brain is wired to pay special attention to criticism. And it doesn’t matter that you are your own harshest critic, now that email makes it emotionally painless to offer correction (don’t you love the anonymous “propetic” emails?), you will have plenty of opportunity to focus on your shortcomings. So when the encouraging words come, hold on to them. Yesterday I had doozy, and I aim to savor this one.
Read the rest of this entry »
Climate change is testing us–the global human family, that is. That’s what I think. Obviously, you don’t have to agree with me. But climate change is also testing the American church, in particular. Tests on a global scale are promised in Scripture. ” I will keep you safe in the time of trial coming on the whole world, to put the people of the world to the test.” (Rev. 3:10)
Read the rest of this entry »
It’s truly amazing how the mere mention of climate change in a blog post stirs up objections from believers. I’m guessing that three-quarters of those who read this blog think climate change is a hoax.
Read the rest of this entry »
Some in my faith community can get a little testy when Charles Darwin’s name comes up. So when Carl Safina, my friend the atheist and ocean conservationist, told me that Jesus and Darwin were his two heroes, I decided it was time to read Darwin’s Origin of Species for myself. After all, I’ve often challenged those who have any prickly opinions about Christianity to temper said opinions by reading the gospels. Much can be learned by going to the source documents.
Read the rest of this entry »
