The first post on leadership dealt with the necessity of a principial foundation. One who would lead well must possess strong moral and ethical principles that will inform and motivate his leadership. The uppermost set of principles, it was argued, are those of the Christian faith, and the ultimate example of strong leadership is the God-man, Jesus Christ. With that first idea in mind, we proceed to the next essential characteristic of good leadership. A good leader is courageous. There... Read more

Hi to all who read this blog. I’ve been a bit sick these past three days, and am still a bit sick, and so my posting is temporarily on hold. It should resume next week. Thanks for sticking with consumed, and stay away from head colds–they are nasty and not friendly at all. Best, owen ds. Read more

In this series, I’m looking at what qualities make a good leader. I’m approaching this from a masculine standpoint, from a Christian standpoint, and with the knowledge that my thoughts are not authoritative. I intend them to be helpful and to germinate thought, but I make no claim that these are the essential characteristics of good leadership. With that said, we commence our look at what makes a good leader. The world seems often to choose its leaders based on... Read more

The current day includes much rebellion against traditional forms of authority. Look around you with an eye for rebellion, and you will see that it is everywhere. Men are bad, bosses are evil, the government is corrupt, the military is abhorrent, the church is useless, the natural family is outmoded, and so on. Everywhere is rebellion, and authority, once prized in our culture, slinks to the corner, smarting from abuse and scorn. This ought not to be so. We need... Read more

Many of you out there are not overly familiar with hip hop. You’ve heard of it, you find it slightly interesting, but you have no idea of where to start looking into things. I understand. This is especially true with Christian hip hop, which is an even stranger animal than secular hip hop. Most people have no clue about Christian hip hop. They may have heard of it, but they’re thoroughly confused about it, and often form misconceptions about it.... Read more

It is interesting to consider the human tendency to join something greater than oneself. Rebellion is celebrated in this world, and isolation often exalted, but yet most people show a strong desire to belong to something larger than themselves. Why is this? Why are those who pay such strong lip service to the beneficence of loneliness and chaos those who also join movements and causes? It seems that there is written on the human heart a desire to join with... Read more

For those who have not heard of this show, I recommend (albeit with a cautionary word) the NBC television show “The Office.” Simply put, the show is the most intelligent comedy you can find on the box these days. With the retirement of “Seinfeld” several years ago, I failed to find a show that made me laugh on a consistent basis. The drought ended with “The Office.” The show portrays the office work world that so many of us inhabit... Read more

The beauty about a blog is that you can do whatever you want to do with it. Tomorrow, I’ll try to bring you some sort of mildly thoughtful cultural engagement. Today, however, I bring you a bit of material I like to call “shameless self-promotion.” So here’s the scoop: go to www.9marks.org (the man to the right, Matt Schmucker, runs 9Marks and is an awesome man). Check under “What’s New” on the left of the homepage, and you’ll see a... Read more

I’ve had a fair amount of evangelical interaction in my life. Over the course of it, I’ve noticed that evangelicals often end up in one of two groups: they’re either over-spiritual, meaning they overemphasize the role of God in their lives, or under-spiritual, meaning they underemphasize the role of God in their lives. Today we look at what it means to belong to each group. We all know people from both groups. In fact, if you’re reading this blog through... Read more

I am not one to emphasize spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare refers to the conflict raging in the spiritual realm between the forces of God, being angels, and the forces of Satan, being demons. I certainly believe in spiritual warfare. The Bible speaks of both angels and demons as real beings. Therefore, I believe in them. However, the Bible does not speak much of angels and demons. We get snapshots, not films; details, not discourses. We learn from Job, from the... Read more