Loving, Learning, and Leading

"We've mixed politics and religion so completely that many simply opt out of both; apparently they are reluctant to claim a religious affiliation because they don't want the political one that comes along with it~Eric Weiner, New York Times No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs — he wants to please his commanding officer. (II Timothy 2:4) I began reading a collection of essays in a book called " A New Evangelical Manifesto " and came across an arresting essay by Brian McLaren entitled "The Church in America Today".  In this essay, he identifies three characteristics of the predominant Evangelical political expression of the past twenty years. Even before I read the essay, I have had an uneasy feeling anytime evangelical Christianity was mentioned in the same breath with any type of politics.   Although I recognize that within the broad evangelical Christian community, there is an incredible diversity of political leanings ...

Jesus told this story: "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.  In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'  "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you ca...

I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,  so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. I Corinthians 2:3-5 There is a tendency on the part of American Christianity to intellectualize faith.  There is a focus on the mental aspects of understanding the gospel, often to the exclusion of experiencing or demonstrating the gospel.  This is not to say that authentic Christianity is anti-intellectual, because a review of early Christianity will reveal some of the greatest and deepest intellectual minds the world has ever seen.  However, in our immediate context, there is typically an unbalanced approach, where the gospel is to be understood, but not necessarily experienced. Modern evangelism techniques often focus on explaining the theological principles of the gospel than proclaiming the reality of the g...

The Fallacies of Fans Yesterday, I had the privilege of going to a Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game with my son, Matthew. It was a good time and the Cavs looked great in their win over the Charlotte Bobcats. What has stuck with me however, is not the game, or the phenomenal abilities of Lebron James, or even atmosphere of the arena. What struck me was the discussions that I over heard while sitting at the game. My conclusion is that most fans are blind, and pride ourselves because of the blinders. The bigger the blinders, the better. At one point, the Charlotte Bobcats began to put together a few successful plays and began to chip away at the sizeable lead. A gentleman behind me stated "The only way that they are scoring is because they are using our plays". Another responded after Lebron James was fouled "They have a plan to hurt him and make us look bad. That's why I hope we slaughter them tonight". The reality of the situation was that basketball plays, ...