Many, perhaps most, of us have a favorite book on prayer. Some would appeal to Augustine’s Confessions, others to Gregory of Nyssa or St Bonaventure or Teresa of Avila or to Luther or Calvin, or from our modern times Andrew Murray or A.W. Tozer or a manual like that of Donald Bloesch. What should be in a good prayer book? Tim Keller, in his new book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God (Dutton, 2014) says a good book on prayer needs... Read more
Joe Stych, where you can read the full article — a good example of a kind of virtue ethics: A great daily routine is the holy grail of productivity. But the building blocks for that routine, habits, are tough to start, and even harder to change. Whether you want to meditate more, drink more water, or floss more than twice a month, these psychology-backed strategies can help you develop a new habit and keep it from fading. You probably already know what a... Read more
Senior citizens do not have identical fellowship, worship and church expectations that young children have, and teenagers vary dramatically from what 20- or 30somethings expect of a church. As a result (good) churches are constantly listening to the various groups and adjusting ministries to the fellowship. Take youth ministries. Having taught at a college for seventeen years and having had dozens of young adults who were pondering entering into youth ministries, I routinely heard conversations that went something along this... Read more
In the 80s and 90s more and more churches took on board “spiritual disciplines” and began to teach and develop programs about spiritual disciplines. The primary movers of this movement were Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline) and Dallas Willard (The Spirit of the Disciplines). Any number of books and programs flow from these two authors, including Renovare and the Transforming Center here in Chicagoland with Ruth Haley Barton. Without minimizing the importance of the disciplines (I have a book called Praying... Read more
From CNN: Amman, Jordan (CNN) — They arrived at the church with only what they could carry: clothes, pictures and a few family heirlooms. It’s all that is left of a life before the Islamic State terror group swept into northern Iraq, giving the Christians of Qaraqosh and Mosul an ultimatum: Convert, leave or die. Most, like Ammar Zaki and his family, fled first to the relative safety of Iraq’s Kurdish capital of Irbil and then made their way to Amman, Jordan,... Read more
Kris and I spent last weekend with the good folks at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria, VA. We were pleased to return as we were there a few years ago with the Jesus Creed and were able to reconnect with many people, including Jason Micheli (whose sermons I often post on Sundays) and head pastor, Dennis Perry. After the Saturday evening service, we headed to a restaurant with many parishioners and had a “theology pub” type experience, discussing the ideas from... Read more
Are you eating “food that’s already banned” in other countries but is still allowed to poison and kill Americans? Learn these pernicious ingredients and common foods through this infographic. Use the embed code to share it on your website. Read more
I’m a fan of narrative preaching. Narrative sermons create a narrative of tension that is resolved by the truth of the gospel, and Jason Micheli, at Aldersgate UMC in Alexandria VA, is one of my favorites. He will take you in this sermon into the ambiguity and ironies of prayer so you can learn what prayer is all about by the end. But you have to stick with this tidy narrative and conversation. By the way, Dennis Perry is the... Read more
Almighty and everlasting God: You are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,... Read more
A big thanks for those who participated in this giveaway: As some of you know, Sharing God’s Love – The Jesus Creed for Children is released this week. My daughter (Laura) and I turned the Jesus Creed practice into a children’s book. The book is full of wonderful (no, adorable) illustrations and shows how young children can love God and love other people in their daily life — at home, in the classroom, on the bus, on the playground. The Jesus Creed is... Read more
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