With this post I begin a series on the impact education, knowledge and cultural trends should have on communication and spiritual formation in the church. In this post, I talk about the knowledge deficit in American, especially in young adults. In...
In the past three or four months, a diverse set of events and news reports have given me a different perspective into the failing educational system in the US. It is a travesty that two-thirds of Wisconsin 8th graders cannot read despite having the...
We cannot overemphasize bringing men and women to new birth in Christ. Evangelism is essential, critically essential. But is it not obvious that growth in Christ is equally essential? Yet the american church has not treated it with an equivalent...
I am continuing to work through the book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davidson Hunter. One the face of it, there is significant merit to the emphasis on ideas, the...
An interesting question, don’t you think? The definition of worldview According to Wikipedia, a worldview “is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing natural philosophy, fundamental existential and...
I have struggled off and on in my prayer life. There are days when I really enjoy praying and others when I’m not really in the mood to sit and participate in a typical prayer experience. Of course defining that typical prayer experience can...
In thinking about monastic practices that help form us in a contemporary culture, I want to turn to the idea of lectio divina. Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or “holy reading,” and represents a traditional...
Fear. The opposite of Love is not hate. The opposite of love is fear. What does scripture say? Perfect love casts out: Hate? Pain? Anger? Fluffy the vampire bat? No, perfect love casts out fear. Fear is the base emotion. One of the brain structures...
Expectations. We have them of ourselves. We have them of friends. We even have them of God. Expectations are formed through experiences. Based on experiences, we know what to expect out of restaurants. Based on experience we know what to expect out...
God guides us into faith. Looking at how God led the Israelite nation, the disciples, and Christians post-Pentecost, we see that God longs to bring into a faith where we lean on His guidance day-by-day, not our own self-reliance that plans our...