ken wilson online

Many pastors I know are subject to the mental cruelty of their own rumination.  Oh, it’s the bane of pastoral ministry! Rumination, like a cow chewing her cud, swallowing, regurgitating to chew some more, ad nauseum, pun intended.  It’s as unpleasant as it sounds when it happens in your head: going over and over the same thought, the same problem solving inner dialogue, the same rehearsed conversation for extended periods, ad nauseum, no fun intended.
Read the rest of this entry »

So you’re a young pastor.  Have you noticed that people sin?  Yes, they do bad things.  Some they do to you–complain about you to others for example because they are afraid to speak with you directly.  Oh that’s galling.  So you will be tempted to focus on those sins because they make an impression on you.  But that’s not what the poor sinners need so much.  They need someone to talk to about the struggles in their lives which often involves sins–the sins of others or their own or the communal sins that affect them.  As you are sitting there listening to a poor sinner, you will be tempted to assume the posture of the expert.
Read the rest of this entry »

Love demands more of us than any other thing. Because God is love, and man, can he be demanding!  So why does an emphasis on love make some people of faith nervous?

I’m mystified by the occasional push back I get on this blog when I quote the golden rule: “”In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7: 12   Someone objected that this is not the gospel.  Oh?
Read the rest of this entry »

Carl Safina, an environmental scientist and science writer of some note, spoke at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor two weeks ago.  Our first secular scientist as a speaker–a man who professes no Christian faith, but is an admirer of Jesus of Nazareth along with Charles Darwin.  He was nervous to be speaking to a congregation in the evangelical wing of American Christianity. He was nervous as one might be who is crossing a minefield without knowing where the mines are located.  Would he offend people without even intending to? Would he get me into trouble with congregants by what he might say?  I told him not to be nervous: we wanted to hear what he had to say about the oceans and science and the environment.  Tell us what you know.  But I was nervous too.
Read the rest of this entry »

Words are very potent things.  They carry things like truth in them.  They can function as “memes.”  Memes are bits of cultural data that are analogous to genes.  They get transferred from person to person, outlasting persons and seem to have a life of their own.  They can be as difficult to shake off as your grandaddy’s DNA.   I’ve made my peace with that.  There are three words that I’ve accepted and despite pressure from many quarters don’t wish to relegate to the word bin of history: evangelical, religion, and love. 
Read the rest of this entry »