In several of his books, Henri Nouwen recounts how the severely physically and mentally disabled residents of Daybreak, a L’Arche community became his spiritual mentors. Nouwen saw, with the eyes of faith, what many could not: the Spirit is not hindered by human frailty. He believed that great saints who are in continual, hidden converse…
The Needy Pastor
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received also left me damaged and wounded, but only for a time. “You come off as needy,” he said, “and people can smell it.” Yes, we all have needs, and none of us is self-sufficient. After the defensiveness wore off, I realized that person was referring…
Why Resurrection?
Why is it so important to Christians that we profess faith in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ? Many aspects of that reality could be discussed, because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are right there at the very heart of our faith. However, there is an aspect that most speaks to today’s world….
A Long Obedience In A Lenten Direction
A week before Ash Wednesday this year, I was preaching at a Christian high school to students who were learning about the season of Lent. I find excitement in sharing the basics of spiritual seasons like Lent with people who are learning about the Christian calendar for the first time. Lenten Basics As I teach…
A Quick Primer on Liturgical Theology
Ever wondered how to understand Christian worship? Here is a quick overview of liturgical theology… Word & Sacrament In his masterful book Liturgical Theology, Simon Chan observed that, “[Worship] practices have always returned to two things, Word and sacrament.” Our Sunday worship takes this seriously. The first part of the service is the word, and the…
Five Prescriptions for Congregational Health
When a church gets sick, we often seek ways to cover up our symptoms or to feverishly inject the untested trial drugs of our times, yet we remain ill. Whatever the reasons for unhealth within your church, these five prescriptions will help set the baseline for healing. These medicines are biblical, ancient, and curative. They aren’t partisan or pushy. They aren’t…
Five Signs of Clergy Health & Longevity
The road to ministry is filled with pastors who burned out, committed moral failure, or walked away from the ministry. For many, what began as an exciting adventure became a nightmare. Peter Drucker, who Business Week has called “the man who invented management,” said the four toughest jobs in America (in no particular order) were:…
Catechesis & Anglican Church Planting
What do Anglican church planting and catechesis have in common? The answer is a lot. As Fr. Lee Nelson recently and masterfully pointed out, Christians have used catechesis to teach the essentials of the faith for centuries, and Canon Dan Alger pointed us recently to sacramental church planting. One of the biggest challenges church planters face…
Catechesis 3: On Building a Culture
Wendell Berry, in his 1977 book The Unsettling of America, argued that agribusiness was taking the practice of farming out of its cultural context and away from families. It was a prophetic work, and in the years since, we have seen continued decline in family farming in favor of a system that devalues community and…
Who is Doing the Worshipping?
When it comes to worship, Christian culture in America has shifted slowly back to a mentality from the late Middle Ages. Theoretically all Christians are called to worship God. We’ve begun to think of worship as something which clergy and music leaders do, and which the people passively observe. Singing is called “worship” simply because it is the…
