We have partners on the ground in #Ukraine faithfully serving and shepherding God’s people right now. What faith and courage to stay in a time like this. Father, keep them.
Vladimir Putin is a murderer and a tyrant. He is an abuser of evangelical Christians, other religious minorities, and even his own country’s orphans. And now he attacks a neighbor, a democracy, a friend of the USA.
God save Ukraine 🇺🇦
Breakfast with my friend and fellow pastor, @thelowercasejc (Fellowship Bible, Roswell). I love partnering with fellow Jesus churches in Atlanta. Jason is a great leader and thinker.
“Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.”
(C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters)
Conservatism believes the ideal is behind us.
Progressivism believes it is ahead.
The radical claim of Christianity is that both are right & also wholly wrong, because our hope is neither nostalgia nor a secular utopia.
The Garden is gone, but the Kingdom of God is coming.
We have counted on preaching and teaching to form the life of the Christian. But this strategy has not turned out well. The result is that we have multitudes of Christians who can hardly get along with themselves, much less others. ~Dallas Willard
HT @danwhitejr
In times like this it’s good to remember there have always been times like this. Nothing mew under the Sun. God has not vacated His throne. Calm down. Take a deep breath.
We can be right on abortion and the historic Christian sexual ethic and still not have a faithful public witness.
We can be right on social justice and still not have a faithful public witness.
Our civic engagement must declare the whole counsel of God. #NewChristianPolitics
You cannot make people like you. You cannot make people believe you. You cannot change their minds if they want to think the worst of you. You cannot demand esteem. Put that wasted effort into following Jesus &, in his name, in his love & in his ways, do your fellow humans good.
When I came to be one of the founding pastors of ICC 7 years ago, I was dying to the vision of being the main voice & one who casts the most vision in our church. But the Lord had different plans & 18 months after our church was birthed, I found myself in that role. (1/4)
Biden’s abuse of Scripture in quoting Isaiah is as bad and sickening as Trumps. Christian Nationalism is ugly in all it’s forms, from either the left or right.
“Seek first the kingdom of America” said Jesus, never.
Gossip openly confesses other people’s sin and weakness, both real and imagined, while covering our own. Christian community does the opposite, as we confess our own sin and weakness while covering the same in others.
So, which will it be?
Ministry in times of COVID:
Step 1 - Make a plan
Step 2 - Scrap the plan
Step 3 - Return to the plan
Step 4 - Scrap the plan again
Step 5 - Make a plan B
Step 6 - Scrap plan B
Step 7 - Make a plan C
Step 8 - Execute plan D