2009

Displaying God's Splendor

I am a Texan through and through. It has for years been my dream to move back to Texas, but I'm pretty sure that will never happen.

So I decided to bring Texas to Florida—to my family room. I have acquired several genuine Texas items, including an old tin Texas flag, bluebonnet coasters, a wild horse sculpture, a lone star paperweight and many others.

But ...

continue reading

The Art of Rebinding

I recently had my Bible rebound. I've had it for more than a decade, and it's literally travelled tens of thousands of miles with me—physically and spiritually. Its pages provided comfort during the long dark winters in Alaska, hope during times of transition when we returned to Colorado, and wisdom for various steps along the way. In the end, I spent a $123 ...

continue reading

When We Can't Agree to Disagree

The idea that men and women are created differently, in ways that complement each other, sounds okay. But often, this "equal but different" thinking results in a hierarchy that can lead to distortions of truth, or even emotional and physical abuse.

For years, I thought that as with many theological side issues, sincere Christians can agree to disagree when it ...

continue reading

Ministry in the Moment

Lately I've been struck at how full my life has become. Between family, friends, church, home and job as a hospital chaplain (complete with a pager that seems to go off when it's least convenient), my calendar doesn't have much white space. I am, in a word, busy. As a churchgoer, I've heard countless sermons on the dangers of being busy. But lately I'm ...

continue reading

Evening the Playing Field?

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had about three instances where someone has brought up Eve and her knack for being "easily deceived." In two of the cases, it was brought up in a way that made the people conclude that women shouldn't lead - because of this "genetic" deceivability. In the other case, it also had to do with why women shouldn't ...

continue reading

Women's Ministry: Time to Get Back to Basics?

With every opportunity to speak at women's ministry events, invariably the women of these churches never fail to surprise me with the many gifts and talents they have contributed to the preparations. Women's ministry teams seem to know almost innately how to pull everything together: food, décor, worship, organization and all of the other fine details that ...

continue reading

Secrets of Success

Last month during a meeting of the Chicagoland Christian Writers Group, a member spoke about fear of success coming from the sneaky suspicion that our writing is not as good as it ought to be. Maybe we suffer from a Moses complex, you know, "Surely God has made a mistake - shouldn't someone else carry this message?" She spoke about giving ourselves over to ...

continue reading

Unintended Consequences

One thing I've been discovering is the role of unintended consequences in my life. My husband, Leif, and I talk about this a lot. He tends to look at people and think that if someone chooses something, then it's their responsibility to live with the consequences. While I think there's some real truth in that idea, I also see many people who if they knew the full ...

continue reading

Jenni Catron

Get to know Jenni Catron, one of our Gifted for Leadership editorial advisors

Jenni Catron is a writer, speaker, and leadership coach who consults churches and non-profits to help them lead from their extraordinary best. Her passion is to lead well and to inspire, equip and encourage others to do the same. She speaks at conferences and churches nationwide, seeking to help others develop their leadership gifts and lead confidently in the different spheres ...

continue reading

What God Can Do with Your Whole Life

The boy hesitated as Andrew pushed him toward Jesus. "Sir, I have only a small lunch, five loaves and two fish, but if this could help feed some of the people, you can have it." I'm sure Jesus smiled and said, "Thank you. I think this is exactly what I need."

The boy watched in awe as, with that small lunch, Jesus fed more than 5,000, with lots ...

continue reading

Follow us

FacebookTwitterRSS

free newsletters: