All tagged tension
Wright and Bird ground their response in Jesus’ primary message about the kingdom of God. They argue that in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises of various kinds, Jesus is King and Jesus’ kingdom remains the central object of the Church’s witness and work.
Why are humility and courage so difficult? Wouldn’t it be easier to handle things with humility and courage to prevent pain and suffering? Conflict has such a high price tag.
Special days and seasons tend to have a polarizing effect on our emotions and spiritual lives. Do you feel this every year too?
Every conversation about hospitality must include boundaries, and every conversation about boundaries must include hospitality.
If you want to change a system, you have to change something about the way it relates and interacts with the other parts.
Quitting has become a dirty word of sorts, reserved either for the obviously lazy or morally repugnant. Especially in church and leadership circles.
How many relationships are damaged because of assumptions? All of them. We slip into these assumptions without even knowing we are doing it.
There are spiritually gifted women in every church who need the opportunity to exercise their gifts as they submit fully to God for the sake of the kingdom.
It was preaching that drew Christians out to fields for the revivals of the Great Awakenings, and it is preachers today who continue to impact the minds of congregants.
It’s no wonder that it’s not only easy for me to want to share this part of Jesus with others, I simply can’t wait to do exactly that.
In my fear and despair, my anger and bitterness, I cry out at the top of my lungs and from the depths of my heart—begging, pleading for God to wake up and hear me.
When we meet together with an attitude of humility, we can come together over our similarities and remember that we ultimately all desire the same things, whether we are rural, urban, or a mixture of both.
I talk when I shouldn't. I'm quiet when I should talk. When I do talk, I often say the wrong things. I pray that God will tame what I find untamable.
The questions that we’re afraid to even have because they cause us to doubt our own faithfulness to God There has to be a place for these questions, and thus a place for the people who carry them around.
I do not possess the power to forgive my enemies in the same way that God does, but I will carry a deeper respect for God’s reconciling of my enemy.
Congregational leadership is often comprised of various problems that call for attention—everything from sorting out a new insurance policy to discerning the next step for pursuing God’s mission.
Every person considering life in Christ does so with a host of competing group loyalties and social expectations bearing down on them.
When what I want is justice, release from oppression, a stop to the violence, waiting seems more destructive, not hope-filled.
