So says Brian St Pierre: When you eat slowly, you digest better. You lose or maintain weight more easily. Yet you also feel more satisfied with each meal. Conversely, if you rush your meals, your digestion suffers. Meals are stressful. And it might seem like each meal is over too soon, which often makes you want to eat more. Or you “overshoot the runway”, finishing the meal before your natural satiety signals kick in, and ending up suddenly — uncomfortably —... Read more

From Ron Belgau, at First Things: In his treatise On Spiritual Friendship, Aelred of Rievaulx, a 12th-century Cistercian abbot, insists that we need to test our beliefs about friendship with Scripture. The treatise is a series of dialogues in which three monks join Aelred to examine their ideas about friendship in light of their Christian faith. One of the most important passages in the treatise is the discussion of the three kinds of friendship—carnal, worldly, and spiritual—found in Book I, paragraphs 33-49. (This division of... Read more

This review comes to us from Mark Stevens, Adelaide Australia. Brian Fulthorp posted some very sobering statistics on Blue Chip Pastor recently which grabbed my attention. Did you know that, “According to studies by the Alban Institute and Fuller Seminary, 50% of ministers drop out of ministry within the first five years and many never to go back to church again” (Meek et al., 2003, p. 340). Meanwhile a Duke University study also found that “90% of ministers will not... Read more

From Tim Elmore: I believe two sets of messages must be communicated to students during the first two decades of their life. Sadly, very often only one set of messages gets through. The first ten years, we must communicate childhood messages. If we have done this well, they are prepared for necessary adolescent messages that prepare them for a challenging adult world: Childhood Messages  1.You are loved. 2. You are unique. 3. You have gifts 4. You are safe. 5.... Read more

This summer at Northern Seminary I will teach a public-open course on Women in Ministry. Here is a list of our summer offerings, and my course on Women in Ministry will be taught June 17-21. Here’s the official edu-scoop: Women in Ministry will focus on understanding, recognizing and encouraging the gifts God has given to women in the church. The course will focus on biblical texts about women, both from the Old Testament and the New Testament, with particular concentration... Read more

Tyler Braun, asking why Christians don’t play well with one another: So how can we turn this around? What do we need to do in order to disagree with our brothers and sisters in love? First, we need to understand that the underlying theme that allows for disagreement to happen in a healthy way is emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence can be simply defined as seeking to understand before being understood. It’s human nature to fight for your supposed “right” to... Read more

This Sunday in the church calendar is Ascension Sunday (the official Ascension was yesterday, May 9). The foundational text, though not in the lectionary for Sunday, is found in Acts 1:4-11. What themes do you think we are to focus on in light of the Ascension of Christ? Why do you think we ignore Ascension? Acts 1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift... Read more