October 2007

Leading Anxious People through Change

When my daughter was getting ready to enter second grade, she was really anxious. Every time we asked her how she felt about it, she said she was scared and nervous and she didn't want to go to second grade - ever.

We talked about her feelings and tried to figure out why she felt so anxious. She couldn't really explain it. Then one day, after I asked her to tell ...

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Let Men Get the Door

Last weekend, I marched on the streets of my town in support of the giftedness of women. Okay, so that's a bit of a stretch, but I DID take advantage of one of the most glorious fall days ever to walk the half-mile or so to my church to attend a "town hall" meeting to share my thoughts on women holding the offices of elder and deacon.

As I crunched through ...

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The Trouble with Harmony

An infestation of fleas in our house. A large, newly identified plantar wart on my foot. A persistent and painful overgrowth of yeast afflicting my seven-week old daughter's mouth and my breast. Welcome to my life last week: invasion of the parasites.

My budding pest situation reminded a friend of the Egyptians' 10 plagues in Exodus when Pharaoh wouldn't give ...

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Talking to Men

Men love to be respected, and they hate to be disrespected, especially by a woman. Though women in the church already know this, they don't always realize what showing respect to men entails. From a woman's perspective, it isn't necessarily disrespectful, for instance, to interrupt a man mid-sentence. Though to him it may appear that she simply cut him off - ...

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Food for Thought - Oct 21 2007

The Church's response to homosexuality is often ambivalent. On the one hand, we talk about it all the time - pick up a Christian newsletter or magazine, and it is likely to reference current trends on the issue. On the other hand, we don't talk about it at all. The contradiction exposes our tendency to discuss the topic as an abstraction. We are comfortable talking ...

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Rise of the Postmodern Feminine: Part II

In her earlier post, "Rise of the Postmodern Feminine: Part I," Sally told the story of her friend Laurel's heartbreaking trauma and her life-changing ministries. This post continues her thoughts. - The Editors

Echoing the small-company, turn-on-a-dime world of Thomas Friedman's, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, Laurel is finding ...

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Answering a "Real Simple" Question

One of my favorite luxuries is my magazines. I love to lounge, engulfed in my over-sized chair, sip a cup of tea, and page through my latest delivery. This time it was Real Simple. As I combed through the pages looking for the best way to simplify my life, I landed in the section called "Real Life." This section is dedicated to a Real Simple reader who shares ...

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A Woman of Integrity

I had been at my job for nearly 10 years when I got the call from my boss. He wanted to know why Helen, one of my co-workers, would be under the impression that I'd used company money to purchase a plane ticket for personal use. As he explained Helen's accusation, I realized where her assumption had come from - I had to fly to Oregon for work, my ticket was on Alaska ...

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Food for Thought

Compare modern Christianity's quest for the perfect belief system to medieval church architecture. Christians in the emerging culture may look back on our doctrinal structures (statements of faith, systematic theologies) as we look back on medieval cathedrals: possessing a real beauty that should be preserved, but now largely vacant, not inhabited or used much anymore, ...

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A Crisis of Faith

How do we respond when we serve in a spiritual leadership position and face a crisis of faith? During these trials of seemingly unanswered prayer and unrelenting circumstances, we are shaken to the core. This can become so severe that we wonder if we've been betrayed by God himself. We reason that we are doing our best to fulfill our commitment to Christ, but it doesn't ...

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