When Worldly Wonder Ceases

"By and large, our world has lost its sense of wonder. We have grown up. We no longer catch our breath at the sight of a rainbow or the scent of a rose, as we once did. We have grown bigger and everything else smaller, less impressive. We get blasé and worldly-wise and sophisticated. We no longer run our fingers through water, no longer shout at the stars or make faces at the moon." (Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel. Pg, 89)

More Wonder

“Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for Wonder, and He gave it to me.” (Rabbi on deathbed)

You Can't Insult Honesty.

"When a man or woman is truly honest (not just working at it) it is virtually impossible to insult them personally. There is nothing there to insult.....Their inner poverty of spirit and rigorous honesty had set them free." (Brenning Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel. Pg 86)

Huffing And Puffing For Piety Is Over?

"Grace means that in the middle of our struggle the referee blows the whistle and announces the end of the game. We are declared winners and sent to the showers. lt’s over for all huffing, puffing piety to earn God’s favor; it’s finished for all sweat-soaked straining to secure self-worth; it’s the end of all competitive scrambling to get ahead of others in the game. Grace means that God is on our side and thus we are victors regardless of how well we have played the game. We might as well head for the showers and the champagne celebration. (Donald McCullough)

Legalistic Religion Can't Trust!

"The tendency in legalistic religion is to mistrust God, to mistrust others, and consequently, to mistrust ourselves." (Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel, pg 76)

The Christian Division Of Asleep Or Awake.

"Perhaps the real dichotomy in the Christian community today is not between conservatives and liberals or creationists and evolutionists but between the awake and the asleep." (Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel, pg 71)

A Church With No Exit

"Burkhardt writes, "I fear for the lawyer whose only life is corporate tax, the doctor whose whole existence is someone else's prostate, the business executive whose single responsibility is to his stockholders, the athlete who puts all his eggs in an 18-inch basket, the theologian who thinks the world can be saved by theology ..... A closed mind kills marriages and human relations; it deadens feelings and sensitivities; it makes for a church that lives in a thousand and one tunnels, with no communication and no exit." (Quoted by Brennan Manning, Ragamuffin Gospel. Pg 65)

Selective Hospitality Only Mirrors Relationships With Ourselves

"An open attitude is like an open door—a welcoming disposition toward the fellow travelers who knock on our door during the middle of a day, the middle of the week, or the middle of a lifetime. Some are dirtballs, grungy, disheveled, and bedraggled. The sophisticated adult within me shudders and is reluctant to offer them hospitality. They may be carrying precious gifts under their shabby rags, but I still prefer clean-shaven Christians who are neatly attired, properly pedigreed, and who affirm my vision, echo my thoughts, stroke me, and make me feel good. Yet my inner child protests, "I want new friends, not old mirrors." (Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel. Pg 65)

Good Schemes!

"Dishonesty, deceit, and defiance are everywhere, permeating both those working in the government and the man on the street as well. Stealing is permissible on every level. The misuse of government funds is one of the country’s most serious problems, and though it is talked about everywhere, no one is seriously interested in ending a custom that seems to benefit so many. Elaborate programs are popular because there will be more money to rake off. And in all classes of society there is the dishonesty of making grandiose plans with no intention of carrying them out." (The Barrios Of Manta. Rhoda Brooks. Pg 115)

Almost all Muslims & Christians Live in Peace With Each Other.

"As a result, Christians hid with Muslim families before fleeing south, recalls Oumar Cisse, who used to live in Timbuktu, another northern city seized by militants.....Local people protected the Christians because they had lived peacefully next to each other for decades," Cisse says. "They became friends and in some cases, family......Malians say they must return to their long tradition of religious tolerance and turn their back on militancy. Some planned to do this by celebrating Christmas, which has long been a national day of feasting in Mali, regardless of one's faith."I'm a Christian, but I am part of a group of 20 people who are all friends," says Michel Diarra, 30, of Bamako. "There are only two Christians in the group, and we will gather ... to celebrate Christmas. It's like that every year. I know many Christians who will invite their Muslim friends home.""http://www.dailyworld.com/usatoday/article/4198045

When Scholarship Fails At Connection

My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegetes, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching Him to help me understand with my head and heart His written Word." (Brennan Manning Ragamuffin Gospel)

In my conversations with people, few say they need more information. However, the majority do say they really struggle with a real connection to Jesus despite having all the information.  

Accepting Our Limitations

"We are no longer preoccupied with being powerful or popular. We no longer fear criticism because we accept the reality of our human limitations." (Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel, pg 49)

Admitting weaknesses, or having them be found out because we fail to play the required game to hide them, will halt ones advancement in ministry and the church. This is why much about "ministry" is an illusion at best, a lie at worst.  Is there a place for real people there, other than the ones who play their cards close?

Preaching Madness

"Oh God, what madness I have preached in sermons!" (Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel, pg 25)

If you knew how often we church leaders look back and say we were mistaken or misguided, you would begin to think, study and learn for yourselves, and rely far less on us to guide you.

An Angel With And Incredible Capacity For Beer

"When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about
feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am
a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.
To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side, I learn who I am
and what God’s grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, "A saint is not someone who is good hut who experiences the goodness of
God.” (Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel)

If Our God Is Small-Minded Bookkeeper, Then So Are We

"The bending of the mind by the powers of this world has twisted the
gospel of grace into religious bondage and distorted the image of God
into an eternal, small-minded bookkeeper. The Christian community
resembles a Wall Street exchange of works wherein the elite are
honored and the ordinary ignored. Love is stifled, freedom shackled,
and self-righteousness fastened. The institutional church has become a wounder of the healers rather than a healer of the wounded."(Brennan Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel)

When Rigidity Is Mistaken For Faithfulness.

"And it did what the gospel can’t help but do: It broke the power of mere “moralistic religiosity" in my life and revived a deeper acceptance that had long ago withered in me.
ln our society, we tend to swear unyielding allegiance to a rigid position, confusing that action with finding an authentic connection to a Life-giving Spirit."

(Rich Mullins in forward to "Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning)

Directed Personal Giving

"It is impossible to describe the big difference this direct-line foreign aid made in our work. Imagination and elbow grease can go only so far and then what has been begun may be lost without a little impetus in the form of cash. The American dollar goes a long way in Ecuador and with it some wonderful things can happen: a family able to save the Life of a child, or a carpentry workshop able to buy tools for its students, etc. This is the core of our Peace Corps experience-things happening on a personal level that could never happen through the conventional channels of foreign aid." (Rhoda Brooks. Barrios of Manta. Pg 103.)

The Invisible Humanitarian

Check my new website for Live Stories from Mali, West Africa.

The Invisible Humanitarian 

Christian Sophisticates Always Do Nothing

He has a point. We will argue about your how..... But we still do nothing, stand for nothing.

<blockquote>"This whole thing makes me think it is some kind of reprise of the Chick Fil A uproar. Somebody strayed from the Appointed Way, the homolobby flexed in order to shut up a critic, middle America responded by buying so many metric tons of chicken sandwiches, and then sophisticated Christians sneered at this inadequate and “entirely predictable” and “red statey” response. The same thing has happened in the aftermath of Robertson’s comments. He said what he did, A&E suspended him for it, and more than a million regular folks have signed on to a “Stand With Phil” website. And, here comes the point of this post, Christian sophisticates are critical of . . . you guessed it! But this reminds me of something that D.L. Moody once said — “I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”
The contrast must not be between how unsophisticated Christians fight and how sophisticated Christians . . . what do they do? At most, they demur, with a throat-clearing caveat or two. Theologians and ecclesiastical eggheads can make merry over this kind of pop culture melee if they like. The material is there — “look at those rubes, standing against the principalities and powers with their duck calls, zz top beards, and chicken sammich haute cuisine, hold the mayo.”
But the lack of self-awareness in this criticism is staggering. These are shepherds who feed only themselves (Ezek. 34:2). When shepherds have neglected the flock for so long, and the wolves are ravaging them, and the sheep come up with some kind of strategy to defend themselves, and the shepherds sit up on the ridge, laughing at the tactical inadequacy of what the sheep are attempting, what shall we call that?
So what do we need? We don’t need generals. We have that. We need generals who fight. We don’t need leadership councils. We have those. We need national leaders who fight. We don’t need pretty boy preachers. We have those. We need preachers who fight. We don’t need evangelical regiments of pajamaboys. We have that. We need fight, and we need to fight with everything we have — heart, strength, and brains. All in.
Show me your forearms. Unless there are scars all over them, then I honestly don’t want to hear your views of the inadequacy of these cultural clashes (Gal. 6:17). When the barbarians are throwing their scaling ladders against the city walls, if the only defenders at the top of those walls are Chick Fil A employees in paper hats and hot grease from the deep fryer, and rednecks with their beards and shotguns, and nobody at all there from Red Brick Memorial Reformed, Rev. Forsythe P. Snodgrass, D.Min, minister, then let us be frank. We shouldn’t blame the folks who are there.
“His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” (Is. 56:10)."
(Douglas Wilson. Accessed Dec 12, 2013)<blockquote>

Church Still Works When Governments Don't.

"The church is the only institution in the country that operates with continuity when everything else falls into turmoil during a revolution or a coup d'etat.” (Rhoda Brooks. Barrios Of Manta. Peace Corps worker in Ecudar, pg 99 )

Not Now.... Maybe Later

Don't push the maybe, baby!

<blockquote>"The most dangerous risk of all - The risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can by yourself the freedom to do it later." (Unknown)<blockquote>

The Common Ground of All Humanity

Changes how we see and treat people, does it not?

<blockquote>"Everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something " (unknown)<blockquote>

Christian Cannibals?

"I’m still in the church, despite lots of scars on my back from the Christian Cannibals out there. I just managed to find a congregation I feel safe with to be me, who are, mostly, not scared of hard questions" (Drew) post comments on a blog post I read somewhere.

Stop Dragging Me To Church!

"Let go or be dragged". (Attributed as Old Buddhist Saying)

I have no idea if this is an actually Buddhist saying or not. I came across it in an article one time.
However, I felt it had some implications for believers as well. Not because it is "Biblical truth". Rather, because practically it seems to make some since sometimes.

So many people really want to connect with Jesus, and they never set out to bash the local church (Prescribed more than described, by church folks), I know I didn't. But, anything but "I accept this, it is so helpful" is not welcome.

People are trying to find Jesus, to connect with him and others in him name. Is it happening for most of you?

Busy as "Old Blazes" in the church system, doing all these great programs and ministries that are suppose to help people grow in Christ, and we have come to believe we NEED them to grow in Christ.

However, in the end we look around, WE who are running all this stuff, and confess, "This is not helping me get closer to Jesus". Then we look around and ask others,"Is it working for you?" and the answer in private is usually, "No!". However, that is not the face put forward on Sunday. If we put on the true self, the true face, that face gets slapped by the church saying, "This Does help.... it's just you."

Let me in on the little underground secret. It's not just you. It's most of us.

Church programs were fun in their own way, and I enjoyed the people I met, but this stuff did not get me closer to Jesus, no closer to people. No! In fact, this had so cluttered my life it hindered the process, the program did the opposite of what it was intended to do. It became another thing, hurtle, obstacle, barrier to me connecting with Jesus. Something else I have to pass through to get to Jesus. We are throwing something else second hand in between us and him.

Then we get it one day. I need him... just Him, and other to walk with, in him.

I do not suggest anyone (Never have - not once) leave their local church, personally.
But I would suggest that you drop everything you are doing until you have space and time for Jesus. Spending more time sitting and thinking about Jesus, and get to understand and sense the reality that he is with me all the time. ALL... OF.....THE... TIME..... :-) There are no sacred places, sacred events, sacred times, sacred buildings, sacred land. All of life is lived under the breath of God, and the reality of his Son Jesus. Life is Sacred. Gardening is sacred, Scripture is sacred, time with believers is sacred, time with non Christians is sacred. It's all lived and experienced under the reality of Jesus.

The best advice I ever received was. "Andy, stop trying to promote it or defend it to people, just live it."

Does it mean we should never talk about our journey into real connection with others and with Jesus?
No, but I recommend that you share it with only those who seek you out. People who are looking for answers for their own journey, and they have seen something in you, so  they seek you out. Speak to only who God puts in your path, not who you have chosen to put in your cross hairs.

I see no need for you to go explain it to your Pastor, the elders, the church structure, or anyone.  All they hear is church bashing. They will not get it, some might, but they can not bless it usually.

• We are your Leaders... we have not lead you to this where is this coming from?... Issues
• Serve More, Attend this Group, It will Help..... I gets in my way, so I'm going to step back.... Issues
• We are growing this church........ I may need to step out for a while ...... Issues
• Why is participation in events decreasing? You need  these to grow child...... They exhaust me more than they help........ Issues.
• This is the churches and Leaders vision..... It's not my vision.......... Issues.
• We are the Spiritual Leaders....... Why are you telling people about your simple path?....... They asked me..... Issues..
• Why Are You Supporting the direction of the church?....... I Personally can't do that, But I'm Being silent about it...... Issues.

My experience is that when you talk about what you are running to..... you have to begin with the starting line.

"I left my old life, and moved into this Cabin on this mountain in the Canadian Yukon".

Means something different for the guy who then points saying, See that cabin over there on the other side of the valley? That is my mom and dad over there, I grew up there as the son of a mountain man, and felt it was time to build my own cabin.

Very different than the man who says, "I lived in Florida, got tired of the city life, traffic jams, an the heat. I had a small business but grew weary of the stresses of business, finances, Long hours doing something that did not satisfy me. I was never home, My wife cheated on me eventually. My daughter had to be treated for depression. I remarried and it was ok, but the rat race of that Florida life was the problem. I knew I needed to simplify my life, so I came here to begin a new life. I built this cabin and have been here since.

Every testimony I ever heard at church. "Life was bad, I was bad, Jesus broke through, got me to the good place.......... I've been in Church ever since."    And we say...... Amen!

Continuing testimony,

"You brought me into this church body, I liked the people, they are all good people. But after a few years I was sinking in over my head being busy serving in the programs, I was not home for my family, I was out 3 or 4 nights a week with church stuff. I had absolutely no time to make any nonchristain friends to evangelize, I was tired, I was feeling stressed, I was not growing in Jesus. Had not tie to read my bible, I was never home. Had not time to pray as I was at all the events. So to help me grow, I attended more and more discipleship programs and bible studies designed to help me.... Nothing seemed to help. I was sinking brothers and sisters. Then I realized, I don't need to fill my life with all this stuff to Grow in Jesus, I need time with Jesus, to grow in Jesus. So I stripped most of it away."

 Can I hear and Amen Brother! Nope!

"Let go, or be dragged?  I think it goes both ways for the Church Institution.

1. I have to let go of you:  Or I could be a burden to you doing church that way. Out of love I try to stay with you, but because I have simplified my life, I no longer go that speed, I'm like a dead weight to you, and you find me frustrating.

2. You have to let go of me:   I feel it's time to go, but you won't let me go. You keep your hands on me, dragging me back, dragging me away from this silly new path, Draggin me back to this kind of church experience. By doing so you only further damage my body and soul, being dragged hurts me.

I'm Questioning Humanity - Not God.

"I have never questioned my faith in God, I have questioned my faith in humanity" (Priests comments to BBC's Mark Mardell over Newtown killings

Time To Sit And Visit People

"More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence.
Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress.
But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn't be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them."
(Henri Nouwen)

Legitimate Grief Over Church

"Christian culture doesn’t have a category for grief and anger at wrongs done in God’s name. They see it all as cynicism." (Jim Palmer).

I've treated people this way..... Sorry! Sometimes people have been hurt and we focus more on their need to accept it, and get over it, quickly. We do not permit them time to recover from wounds. Wound them more by suggesting they should get over it fast or they are sinning.  All the while we do little to address or acknowledge the causing factors.

Typical Church People Response to Organic or Simple Church Ideas

I'd have to say that this about summarizes it very well. 

"When Nicole and I started down the road of beginning an organic church..... we knew in our earliest of conversations with people that the greatest “persecution” we would face would be from those we loved most. From other believers, friends, even family....The reason Nicole asked me to write this was due to my sadness, confusion even, in reading some of the comments she’s received the past few weeks when writing about organic church. They are the same types of remarks we have become accustomed to hearing firsthand. Things like…
- Are you just a group of people who are disenfranchised with the church?
- You clearly have a problem with authority.
- What did the church do wrong to you?
- That’s not church.
http://www.churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-

Get Out of Your Mind?

"Get out of your head and live your life.... Be careful of a spiritual life that is mostly mental – accumulating more and more information and knowledge, conceptualizing new and improved concepts, analyzing and debating this or that idea, latching on to the latest and greatest spiritual guru. (Jim Palmer)

Neil Cole's Letter About Starling Initiatives

MISSIONS IS BROKEN AND NEEDS TO CHANGE 
Missions is broken and needs to change
As I have traveled all over the world equipping the church to do mission I have discovered that the way missions has been done for the past 100+ years is broken.
For two decades we helped to get the missional church on track but we found the avenues for international missions were not suitable for this new breed of kingdom minded missionaries. There was a breakdown in the mission. Those trained in organic church struggled in suffocating organizational structures. At the same time, the mission organizations that have been in place were often threatened by the emerging new forms of church and leadership and were also incapable of initiating works with this new paradigm. In fact, their livelihood depended upon them not understanding and accepting the new paradigm.
In just ten years time (ca 47-57 AD) the apostle Paul was able to establish a thriving expression of the kingdom of God in five different provinces of the Roman Empire: Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, Asia Minor and Illyricum. After that he had nothing more to do there and was off to other places further west. Today we do not see even one people group reached in the same amount of time. We have air travel, mobile phones, the internet, rapid transit, computers, Bible aids, mass communication and a an abundance of publications, none of which was available to Paul. At the same time, we also have the same God, the same empowering presence of the Holy Spirit and the same powerful good news that he had. Nevertheless we are struggling to see even a fraction of the fruitfulness he saw and it is taking us a whole lot longer for what little fruit we see. Surely we are doing something wrong.
I am convinced that we can save billions of dollars and accomplish 10 times the results if we have the courage to do missions differently. Mission agency dysfunction has been a well-known secret that can no longer be denied or contained, yet is unpopular to speak about. We are sending too many people, the wrong kind of people, who are staying too long, costing too much, and not leaving behind a healthy, well-rounded and indigenous movement that is strong enough to endure let alone send missionaries to other places. This must change. The past 20 years God called me to give mission back to the church. Now God is calling me to bring the healthy church back into missions.
We simply cannot expect current mission agencies to correct a problem that they are contributing to and not designed to fix...and one that they actually benefit from maintaining. More of the same will only produce more of the same. So I, and a few others, feel called to start something new, something more organic, movemental and indigenously empowering. And we need to start something that does not produce a dependence upon US dollars, leadership and models of ministry. This is why we are starting Starling Initiatives.

A Good Head, Heart, And Pen is Mighty

“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.” (Nelson Mandela)

Church is Big Business. The Power of the Evangelical Machine

Why would we air the dirty Laundry of the church? Because dirty Laundry needs to be washed, not pushed under the bed. Period! The church is a hush it up environment.  Those to voice the concern are LAMBASTED....... When something can not be corrected, and error can not be acknowledged and discussed, that thing has been corrupted.

When I first read that staff members before being hired at Mars Hill Church must sign a "Non Disclosure: Agreement to be hired, and are threatened to be sued - if they reveal things about their job, the church or the staff environment or the nature of their dismissal.  Bottom line there is one Head of the wolf pack, and anyone who does not do as told, is eliminated. And when you are eliminated "Shut the Hell up".

These underlined words below do not surprise me. I am in no way speaking about Mark Driscoll.... However, I think his predicament, and the reaction of those involved to to it, show us how the machine works. The church Institution always wins. I mean... no matter how corrupt, or twisted the institution becomes, it preserves itself.  The machine will crush, question, malign, and destroy you simply because you dared to ask ,Why?  Power baby.... don't question mine.  This is what I am running from.

Over the Mark Driscoll Plagiarism conflict

"I was a part-time, topic producer for Janet Mefferd until yesterday when I resigned over this situation. All I can share is that there is an evangelical celebrity machine that is more powerful than anyone realizes. You may not go up against the machine. That is all. Mark Driscoll clearly plagiarized and those who could have underscored the seriousness of it and demanded accountability did not. That is the reality of the evangelical industrial complex........I’ve read much speculation online, which is understandable given the confusing situation, most of it dead wrong. Being limited in what I can share, let me just say that truth tellers face multiple pressure sources these days. I hosted a radio show for 23 years and know from experience how Big Publishing protects its celebrities. Anything but fawning adulation for those who come on your show (a gift of free air time for the author/publisher by the way) is not taken well. Like Dr. Carl Trueman so aptly asked yesterday in his column at Reformation 21, does honest journalism have any role to play in evangelicalism now? (It was rhetorical.) My own take on that question is, no, it does not. The moment hard questions are asked, the negative focus goes on the questioner, - See more at: See more at: http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/12/06/mefferd-producer-resigns-driscoll-controversy/#sthash.J6DOvfin.dpuf"

Deathbed Regrets.....?

A point well taken. 

People continually post these posts about the only thing you regret on your deathbed being what you did not do. As in, you should have done a lot of stupid shit and taken a bunch of risks that, I dunno, could have gotten you eaten by a bear or impregnated by a stripper or dead leaping out of a plane.
I think those people are full of shit......
Most of the things I regret in my life are things I did that were unwise or in some way cost or injured me.......
There are things you do not do in this life because of a sense of overbearing caution or fear. Sometimes that overbearing caution or fear is justified. Like, you know, don’t shake hands with the Grizzly. He is not a cartoon. He will rip your arm off, watch you bleed out, and then floss his teeth with your tendons while he eats your liver.
But that is a bit extreme.
Sometimes you do not do something because you are living in a brain box of your own making that is cauterizing your life and cutting you off from any opportunity.
And sometimes it is maybe hard to tell the difference.
I think maybe that is who that statement, “You’ll regret what you did not do more than what you did do,” is meant for. (Celluloid Blonde - Regret whut?)

A Translator Goes To Heaven..............

A sad Day.....  A translator killed in Central African Republic.  A heavy heart of prayer goes up for this family.

The words of an ancient father of faith comes to mind.

"....the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church....... The more you mow us down, the more numerous we grow; the blood of Christians is seed." - Tertullian

http://www.wycliffe.ca/wycliffe/newsroom/release.jsp?uuid=57fe0a84db

Mandela Made A Marriage Possible

At the news of Nelson Mandela's death, my friend Catherine Robar, originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and now living and working in South Africa with her South African husband, wrote today, December 5th 2013)

"Without these sacrifices Gcinisizwe would have been jailed or murdered for being found in the presence of white people, and I would have been deported back to Canada for fraternizing with black people. Thank you for sacrificing your life for our freedom."

Nelson Mandela Dies But Not His Words.

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his
background, or his religion. People must learn to hate,and if they can learn to hate,they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally the human heart than its
opposite." (Nelson Mandela)

Calvinists probably doubt it. But I don't. I've seen it everywhere, and in many a remote place

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in such a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." (Nelson Mandela)

No More Shame........

"I grew up going to church and though church can be beautiful, I’ve noticed religious communities are especially adept at getting people to carry buckets of guilt and shame around. After the horse experience, I decided to leave the guilt and shame with the church and walk off with Jesus."(Donald Miller Does Attending Church Mean You Must Carry “Buckets of Shame?” Dec 2, 2013)

Full Article here

Bastions Of Democracy

"The elections have one great benefit for Hotel Djenne Djenno: the International Election Observers  are staying at the hotel and eating here too.  There are two nice young European men staying: one Hungarian and one Romanian, sent here by the European Union.  And then there are two Africans: one from Liberia and one from Sierra Leone.  Keita  giggled about this: ‘ Those two  great bastions of Democracy and Human Rights are overseeing our elections!’ Malians, inspite of their two year crisis, still feel that they lie well over the West African average when it comes to progress, civilization  and democracy" (djenneDjenno.blogspot com)

Don't Criticize The Church Just Accept The Pain And Abuse As Good For You

"Expressions of sharp and even violent criticism of religion and the church have been welcomed [in this collection], for they usually imply sincerity of thought. If caustic criticism of religious institutions and practices is irreligious, then Amos, Isaiah, and Jesus were very it religious men. In fact, that is exactly what many of their contemporaries took them to be."
(Halford E. Luccock (1885-1960) & Frances Brentano, The Questing Spirit)

The Church That Doesn't Change Me.

Like..... da!..... That dirty little secret we can't talk about.... Church attendance does not actually help grow many people.
Jesus has this job......

"More and more researchis disclosing something the Christian churchwould rather deny. Church activity does not
necessarily result in spiritual growth.
We do a lot of good things, but we aren't doinga very good job carrying out our core mission,which is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

After five years studying 1200 churches andexamining the results of 280,000 in-depthresponses, Willow Creek's seminal "RevealStudy" concluded, "Church activity IS NOT ablueprint for spiritual growth." In fact, theydiscovered that the longer someone attendschurch without significant spiritual growth theless likely they are to ever experiencesignificant spiritual transformation."

Save The Worlds Dishes

"Everybody wants to save the earth;nobody wants to help Mom with the dishes." (P. J. O'Rourke)

Knowing.... In The Real Sense

"We live in an age where we know
about a lot of things, but we don't really know them"
(Richard Louv. Last Child In The Woods)

"Nouny" Community Is For Me

"One of the missiological 'misses' of our day is the use of the term 'community' as an adjective, and not as a noun." (Pathfinders Fellowships)

Religious Shaping

Winston Churchill remarked that "we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us."

What If Church Fundraising Just Disappeared?

"One of the greatest challenges which the organic church movement comes up against in the West, is the refined, efficient and effective culture of fundraising which is so often associated with full time ministry / church leadership ... clergy roles. As one who excelled in these in the past, it has taken me years to reframe the legitimate (and limited) role these truly have in the big picture." (Pathfinders Fellowships Canada FB Page)

The Diabolical Self

"If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronising and spoiling sport, and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither."
Clive Lewis

Thy Kingdom Came.....

Nowhere in the New Testament are we told to "build the Kingdom." It is already built "from the foundation of the world," built into the nature of reality. You "see," "enter," "proclaim," "suffer for" the Kingdom, but never "build" it. For the
Kingdom is not a relativism to be built, but an absolute to be accepted, submitted to, obeyed. (E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), The Christ of the American Road)

A Sharing Poverty

"Although by our standards these were among the poorest people in the world, each of them would give free fish to those families most in need. Many centuries ago these people learned to share in both good and bad times; it is now their heritage.” (living Poor PCS )

Belonging to God Is Our Identity

"Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion." (Brennan Manning, 1934-2013 from Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging)

Things We Take and The Things We Leave Behind.

Describes the life of international workers well.

"Their’s will be a story of what they gain, and what they lose. Their’s will be a tale of the things they take with them, and the things they leave behind. Their’s will be a song that sings the names of the places they belong, and the places they never will.

And I feel like all I write is about how things are hard but good, but this is the experience that is constant: that nothing is constant. It is the tension of this fluid life."
Loss. Belonging.

"THERE ARE FAR, FAR BETTER THINGS AHEAD THAN ANY WE LEAVE BEHIND."
(C.S. LEWIS)