Tag Archives: relationships

Apr 25 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Affliction, faith, loss, pain, & suffering: There Really Is A Reason – 12 Benefits Of Afflictions

“God doesn’t afflict us or allow us to be afflicted for no reason. … in God’s plan, afflictions have great benefit to us, as painful as they are at times.  If we keep these benefits in mind when we suffer, they can help us endure joyfully.”

Archaeology: Roads of Arabia Exhibition: Update

“Here is the schedule for upcoming shows of the exhibition … The Museum of Fine Arts – Houston, TX – December 22, 2013 – March 9, 2014.”

Busyness & leadership: Busy is Killing Leadership

“If you’re not careful busyness will quietly take over your life without you even being aware of it.”

Children & Uganda: Launching Reunite Uganda in the US! [essential reading; the work of one of MoSt Church's own: Darby Priest]

“Help us get Ugandan children out of orphanages and back to their families.”

Church, fear, ministry & the work of God: Francis Chan: Are You ‘Protecting’ Your Church from a Movement of God?  [10 min. video clip; required viewing]

“… it blew my mind that an older man would come alongside of me and believe in me.”

Church & intergenerational ministry: Congregations as Families of Faith: Beyond Age-Level Ministries

“…  research has continued to show that intergenerational relationships are like glue that makes faith sticky for young people. Age-level ministries are still important to create a community of peers for children, youth, and adults to belong to. But if we hope to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, then we must develop intergenerational ministries that model the faith for our children and youth, and support our families as they seek to follow Christ. The research tells us that we need to be doing church differently.”

Communication, culture, demographics, social media, & society: Just Who Uses Social Media? A Demographic Breakdown

“You think you know social? How about who uses it? Well, you might not know it as well as you would have guessed. A new study from the Pew Research Center and Docstoc shed some light on just who uses social and on what platforms. Some of the findings seem in line with what you would probably guess, but others were surprising.”

Distribution of wealth: A Rise in Wealth for the Wealthy; Declines for the Lower 93%

“During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data.”

Employment, faith, jobs, & work: Why Tim Keller Wants You to Stay in That Job You Hate

“‘I hate my job. It’s not just like I don’t have a lot of power—I really can’t stand what I have to do every day.’ How would you pastor someone in that situation?”

Expectations & introverts: 7 False Assumptions Made About Introverts by Ron Edmonson

“There are a lot of false assumptions made when someone is introverted. Here are 7 false assumptions made of me as an introvert …”

Church finances, collection, contribution, electronic giving, & offering: What the Decline in Check Writing Will Mean for Your Church

“If we do not change our process for collecting the offering we will see our offerings decline. The reason is simple. The harder we make it for people to give the less likely they will give.”

Ego, Facebook, photography, pride, & vanity: Snap Judgments: Our Societal Obsession With Taking Pictures [required reading]

“Each day, we upload more than 5.2 million photos to Instragram and 100 million to Facebook, with no signs of slowing down our snapping and sharing. … In a sense, this is totally natural. Photographs speak to the age-old custom of physically marking spaces and moments in thanksgiving and remembrance. … The danger of using photos as markers is that images appeal to our vanity. We become quickly obsessed with accumulating experiences, capturing them in photos, and publicly displaying our photos as trophies. If we aren’t careful, our Facebook pages and blogs can become trophy cases of our own accomplishments: Me, on a church mission trip, lumped in with a group of smiling ethnic children.”

Grace: God at Work: Common Grace by Jonathan Storment [required reading]

“The bad guy in the Christian story isn’t someone, it’s the broken reality that Jesus calls sin. And because of common grace we can see God working through people outside of our tribe, our immediate community, or our faith. We can see the image of God in everyone.”

Hope, immigration, mercy, North Korea, pain, & suffering: Hyeonseo Lee: My Escape from North Korea [12 min. video clip; required viewing]

“… one day, in 1995, my Mom brought home a letter from a coworker’s sister. It read, ‘When you read this, all five family members will not exist in this world, because we haven’t eaten in the past two weeks. We are lying on the floor together, and our bodies are so week, we are ready to die.’”

Ministry, relationships, & time management: How Does a Pastor Interact With Those Who Seek to Monopolize His Time on Sunday?

“It is one of the great dilemmas every Sunday for the pastor.  Who do I speak with and for how long?  Most pastors stand at a doorway after the morning service to greet those who are leaving.  Others stay down front inviting folks to come and speak with the pastor to ask questions about the sermon.  It is a constant juggling match that most pastors feel they fail at most of the time. What adds to the madness is the person who aggressively hunts the pastor down after the service and feels entitled to his undivided attention for a long time.”

Worship: Your Worship Service is B-O-R-I-N-G!

“There’s a reason your church isn’t more creative. … most churches are boring because of The Olive Garden Problem.”

Americanism, culture, & politics: A Political Rant Born From a Deeper Theological Conviction than “Americanism”

“I’ve seen several posts on social media advocating a picture as a “way forward” in terms of political policy. It looks like this … What I want to do is interact with these ideas as a Christian who takes Scripture seriously and who is more committed to the kingdom of God than to a specific country/government. I intend to provide a ‘play by play’ through each of the statements …”

 

Mar 25 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Alternative energy, ecology, gas & oil: Life After Oil and Gas

“You could power America with renewables from a technical and economic standpoint. The biggest obstacles are social and political — what you need is the will to do it. … how much we really “need” fossil fuels is worth pondering.”

Ambition, competition & envy: Envy: This is a Heart Issue by John T. Willis

“… competition is huge in American society and throughout the world. Everyone yearns to SUCCEED and to EXCEL. This is why we have the World Series, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, etc. All of this is interesting and attracting. But spiritually, under God through Jesus Christ there is an entirely different way of thinking and living.”

Children, church & ministry: What If the Kids Don’t Want Our Church?

“… you could complain about the fact that these kids just don’t appreciate what you’ve done for them. Or, you could suck it up and bless them on their next wild adventure.”

Ecology & environment: Overfished and Under-Protected: Oceans on the Brink of Catastrophic Collapse

“The Census of Marine Life, a decade-long international survey of ocean life completed in 2010, estimated that 90% of the big fish had disappeared from the world’s oceans, victims primarily of overfishing. … The ocean has become 30% more acidic since the start of The Industrial Revolution in the 18th century and is predicted to be 150% more acidic by the end of this century, according to a UNESCO report published last year. … The Census of Marine Life reported that phytoplankton, the microscopic plants producing most of the oxygen from the oceans, have been declining by around 1% a year since 1900. … ‘There’s a real lack of public and political awareness of these issues,’ says Alex Rogers, professor of conservation biology at the UK’s Oxford University.”

Faith, Millenials, Nones, religion & relationships: Relationships are the New Religion for Many

“Relationships have replaced religion for many Millennials … In 2009, LifeWay asked 1,200 people ages 18-29, to name those things that were “really important” to them in life. Over 60% mentioned family, 25% mentioned friends, but only 13% mentioned spirituality or religion.”

The Bible mini-series: Understanding Caiaphas — The Bible Series

“The character of Caiaphas presents one of the greatest challenges for any Jesus film or Passion play, and many have failed the test, making Caiaphas a cartoon, caricature baddie who makes no historical sense and who is offensive to boot.”

Mar 17 2013

how to prevent rudeness

 

Let’s say your task is to try to convey to someone the essence of all that it means to practice civility. If it helps get you  into the frame of mind, by all means, imagine a specific scenario you could find yourself in.

It could be that you’re a parent and you’re teaching your child something of manners. Perhaps the “someone” is yourself and you’re trying to become far more deliberate in your habits of behavior toward others, perhaps even toward your aging parents. Or maybe you have a friend who has come to you for your counsel on how they can get along better with others with whom they have a difficult relationship at home or at work.

Now this is vital. You want to word your advice concisely and clearly so the person can grasp it and perhaps even remember it for a very long time to come. What all would you say, and how would you say it all in, let’s say, fifty words or less?

In a fine work entitled The Civility Solution, the author, P.M. Forni does something just like that as he offers us all “eight rules for a civil life” toward “preventing rudeness” (pp. 28-44) I reproduce them below for your careful reflection. I’ve taken the liberty of adding to them eight passages written by the apostle Paul, a man who, like the rest of us, had to learn what it meant to be civil. Each of these texts came to my mind as I read each of Forni’s rules.

May God lead me, and all of us, more and more toward a civil life, I pray.

1. Slow down and be present in your life.

“… be careful to live your life wisely, not foolishly. Take advantage of every opportunity …” (Ephesians 5.15-16a)

2. Listen to the voice of empathy.

“… as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” (Colossians 3.12)

3. Keep a positive attitude.

“… brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4.8)

4. Respect others and grant them plenty of validation.

“Brothers and sisters, we ask you to respect those who are working with you …” (1 Thessalonians 5.12)

5. Disagree graciously and refrain from arguing.

“Avoid foolish and thoughtless discussions, since you know that they produce conflicts. God’s slave shouldn’t be argumentative but should be kind toward all people, able to teach, patient …” (2 Timothy 2.23-25a)

6. Get to know the people around you.

“We were glad to share not only God’s good news with you but also our very lives because we cared for you so much.” (1 Thessalonians 2.8)

7. Pay attention to the small things.

“Say hello to each other with a holy kiss.” (Romans 16.16)

8. Ask, don’t tell.

“… brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to … do better in how you live and please God …” (1 Thessalonians 4.1)

Mar 15 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Bible, change, growth, learning & openmindedness: Afraid of the Bible by Dan Bouchelle [essential reading]

“Here is the stark reality: churches are resistant to open Bible study because we fear new insights from scripture. … What does this say? I think is says at least four things: 1. We over estimate our understanding of scripture and have largely closed off our ability to hear fresh wisdom from God through his primary means of communicating to us. … 2. We fail to understand the role of the Holy Spirit working upon a community as it encounters God in his Word. We can’t control the Spirit or explain him and we fear what we don’t understand and control. … 3. We are still modern thinkers who believe … Scripture may describe what God did once, but it won’t help us much with methods for what we should do. 4. Since we know we can’t reconcile seeing something new in scripture and discounting it, as we can easily do with human writers, it is just safer to avoid seeking to learn anything new from the Bible. Who wants to be responsible for making changes if we did learn better?”

Catholicism: * Would You Pray for the New Pope? by Mark Woodward; * Virtual Reality Sistine Chapel; * It Is Better To Have People Think You Are A Fool Than To Write A Blog And Remove All Doubt ; * 5 Things to Know About the New Pope

* “The historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. said that Anti-Catholicism is ‘the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people’ (Gibson, The Coming Catholic Church, HarperCollins 2004). That’s a very strong statement in the face of both our racial biases and our economic and political biases.”

* The inside of the Sistine Chapel in virtual reality.

* “… I do not want Roman Catholic readers to judge me by some of the hate filled, ignorant posts written by some of my non-Catholic counterparts.”

* “He’s the first Jesuit and the first Latin American in modern times to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.”

Church: Pope Francis Calls Out the Church

“We have to avoid the spiritual sickness of a self-referential church. It’s true that when you get out into the street, as happens to every man and woman, there can be accidents. However, if the church remains closed in on itself, self-referential, it gets old. Between a church that suffers accidents in the street, and a church that’s sick because it’s self-referential, I have no doubts about preferring the former.”

Communication, listening, relationships & words: Barriers to Conversation by Scott Elliott [required reading]

“Here are a few common barriers to conversation.”

Controlling: Are You in a Controlling Environment?

“Ask yourself: Do ideas determine systems? or Do systems control ideas?”

Just for fun: The Greatest Homes Made from Shipping Containers Around the World

“The relatively cheap shipping container is a good foundation for a strong, mobile, and post-apocalyptic home. In the last two decades, architects have been incorporating shipping containers into everything from schools to houses — for aesthetic reasons, but also out of economic necessity. Here are some of their most eye-catching creations.”

Logic, reasoning & thinking: How Not to Argue Like an Idiot … The 15 Most Common Logical Fallacies

“… I’ve used and heard plenty of bad reasoning from Christians. The following list is composed of some of the most common logical fallacies; I’ve chosen to limit it to only those I’ve actually heard in the last couple years.”

 ; * 5 Things to Know About the New Pope