“Growing in faith is not just about disciplines of study and withdrawal, as vital as these are. Certainly there needs to be disciplines of passive receptivity to hear from God and to know him in prayerful stilness. But there must also be rhythms of activity if we are to be mature followers of the Messiah.”
– Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost
thoughts
Loving and Destroying Community
“People who love community always end up destroying community. People who love relationships always build community.”
– Ronald Rolheiser
Did you Deny the Resurrection Today?
Watch this Peter Rollins clip to explore what it looks like when our every day actions deny the resurrection and affirm the resurrection.
Peter Rollins is a widely sought after writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker. Peter gained his higher education from Queens University, Belfast and has earned degrees (with distinction) in Scholastic Philosophy (BA Hons), Political Theory (MA) and Post-Structural thought (PhD). He is currently a research associate with the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College, Dublin and is the author of the much talked about How (Not) to Speak of God.
Click here to see a list of the works he has published.
What are your thoughts on his rant?
Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 3/4
Desert experiences are one of the hardest things about life and extremely difficult to navigate through. In fact, when we are in a desert experience, the only thing that many of us think about is how to get out of it – quickly and with as few scars as possible.
In part one, I described the rationale behind desert or isolation experiences in ministry. Click here to read about it.
In part two, I described the different types of desert experiences that one might experience in ministry. Click here to read about it.
Today, I’m going to explore why moving out of a desert experience prematurely is one of the worst decisions that you can do.
The whole process of moving back to Canada in 2010, after pastoring in Korea, was a defining desert experience in my life. We were displaced and without a home, ministry position, income, etc for about 5 months. Upon arriving back in Canada, the first thing I wanted to do was get a job and start providing again for my wife and newborn, but God had other plans. In fact, out of all the resumes that I handed out, absolutely no one called me back for the first couple of months. It was hard at the time, but in hindsight, I can see how God wanted to keep me in that desert experience.
[Read more…] about Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 3/4
Re-Imagining Theological Education
I just came across some excellent videos (see below) illustrating the thoughts on theological education and seminary that I’ve been wrestling with for the past couple of years. You can read about my thoughts here.
You can also read a great article by Leonard Sweet about how seminaries have to reinvent themselves here.
I am encouraged to not only see 3DM working through this concept, but also Fuller Seminary.
Here are pertinent sites discussing the matter:
- http://thefutureoftheologicaleducation.com/
- http://future.fuller.edu