Your Church's Management Culture – Thom Schultz looks at five models, the Family Run church, the Celebrity Centered church, the Deacon Possessed church (I loved that title), the Team Oriented church and the Democracy Weighted church. "Every congregation–and each ministry within it—takes on a style of governance that shapes its work and effectiveness … Sometimes a church’s structure becomes its very focus. People become devoted to the system, rather than to God."
Navigating a Major Staff Departure – After 16 years of working together, Andy Stanley was so concerned with his friend Joel Thomas' decision-making conundrum that Andy didn't initially communicate that he didn't want Joel to leave. Joel broke all the rules of disclosure, bringing Andy into the discussion from day one. A 19-minute leadership podcast on what Andy calls Open-Handed staffing.
What Some Christians Think About Christians in Other Tribes – As listicles go, this collection of 10 Myths will make you think. Sample: "Interpretations differ because one party respects the Bible less … [T]his myth rests on the very shaky assumption that respect for Scripture always leads to correct interpretation and application of scripture. Too bad scripture itself doesn’t back this assumption! Apollos fervently respected the Old Testament and teachings of John the Baptist. But his own sermons were off-base enough for Priscilla and Aquila to pull him aside and give him a crash course in the gospel of Jesus."
Preaching Christologically – Encouraged to "preach Christ in every sermon" hands go up at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with objections to the idealism of this approach because, "my sermon text is focused on a particular doctrinal truth" or "my sermon text is focused on a moral truth and not on Christ" or "my sermon text is focused on a moral truth" or "every sermon begins to sound the same." The answer to these protests is found in something published in 1801.
Confessional Accounts and the Women (and Men) Who Write Them – This précis of an article from The Hedgehog Review begins with Augustine's Confessions and moves to modern times: "But now … confessional literature is a consumer product and (usually) female writers are the commodifiers and the commodified … If their work has anything in common, it’s a mixture of self-consciousness and shamelessness … I too have seen Serious Literary Types raise an eyebrow at first-person narrative essays by women as though it was, by definition, evidence of vanity and triviality. When sold or produced as a genre, Women’s Confessional Literature can be a cynical enterprise that capitalizes on voyeurism."
Parenting with Perspective – Baker Books author Emily Wierenga: "My friend tells me about a family from her neighborhood whose house burnt down in a fire—and they weren't able to make it upstairs in time to reach their four oldest kids. Four boys. Now in heaven. It's the hardest thing I've ever heard. I just weep and weep. Some things are too much and this feels like one of them. No mother should have to outlive one of her children, let alone four … I want to cling to every single one of my children's moments, good and bad, long and short, messy and smudged with kisses, because I'm never going to look back and miss that Mommy Time."
Looking Further Down the Worship Road – Songwriter and producer Brenton Brown: "At least two significant challenges face us as worship leaders. The first is that often we become so engaged in the immediate worship needs that we delay beginning the process of developing the leaders around us. Saying ‘yes’ to developing leaders at certain points will mean saying ‘no’ to other ministry opportunities. There will always be need, but if we are to be effective in serving people in worship we need to break out of the survivalist mentality and plan for the long-haul. The second challenge that faces us, more often than not, is our artistic/perfectionist temperaments which seem to rear up at any hint of a possible drop in standards."
Making Multi-Faith Mandatory in Medicine – Under new guidelines issued this month by the National Health Service in the UK, hospitals would be required to provide atheist chaplains. “Chaplains already show no discrimination in dealing with patients whatever their background or belief. Providing atheist chaplains is an exercise in pointless political correctness. Taxpayers’ money should not be spent on this misguided attempt to comply with the perceived demands of equality laws, when they are already met by existing services.”
L'Arche Founder Wins Templeton Prize – Americans could be forgiven for not knowing Jean Vanier (or how to pronounce his French name) but are probably more aware of Henri Nouwen who joined L'Arche, the organization Vanier founded, after a career as a Catholic seminary professor. L'Arche, founded over 50 years ago became "an international network of communities for mentally disabled people" and last week it was announced that Vanier has "won the 2015 Templeton Prize worth $1.7 million for affirming life’s spiritual dimension." Vanier has 22 books currently in print (in English) including the popular From Brokenness to Community and the 10th anniversary edition of Becoming Human and is known for affirming the dignity of developmentally challenged adults.
Rolling in the Deeps – Why anyone would go to the trouble of crafting a religious sculpture and then placing it out of sight underwater is anyone's guess, though in this collection of five such placements we're told that two of them were: "placed underwater by local officials to help discourage fishing techniques that use explosives. Since fisherman know the statues are down there, they don't use dynamite."
One for the Road – The artist currently known as Prince has covered a 2005 song by Christian artist Nicole Nordeman. Her reaction.
News and opinion gatherer Paul Wilkinson writes daily at Thinking Out Loud.
