This week, I’ve been thinking about the #Yesallwomen hashtag. And like most hot cultural issues of the day, I keep avoiding putting my thoughts down for public consumption. Even with the sincerest of intentions, it’s often feels difficult to contribute anything positive to such loaded conversations.

It always takes longer than it should but eventually I realize that loaded conversations never go away. They may slip out of the public scene but it’s only temporary and they keep coming back with greater tension, sometimes they come back with fury. It’s better if we can speak into them and in the best case scenario, contribute progress, redemption and hope into them. This will of course, expose our pre-suppositions, philosophies and guiding narratives and frankly, I have a lot of faith in mine. Hope you join me.

When I look at my Twitter feed, I’m struck by how many times #Yesallwomen comes up. I follow a [Read more…]

There is generally a bit of unrest in my heart when it comes to the observances, remembrances and celebrations of our patriotic holidays. If you’ve been a faithful reader of this blog, this tends to come up from during July 4ths, Veterans’ Day, 9-11 and of course, Memorial Day.

Normally, I’m a fan of social media but I tend to avoid interacting on it on these days because it tends to add to my unrest. Too much sounds either trite, or overly-militant, and some sound overly-passive, borderline dismissive. The point of such an observance is that we stop what we do and remember the cost it took to allow us to do what we do. Some of what I observe takes me out of that but I try to be grateful for those who are encouraged from what they find on social media.

To be sure, I have nothing but respect, admiration and gratefulness for those who have sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we enjoy. Further, members of my own family have served in their respective militaries voluntarily and involuntarily and again, I have enormous respect and admiration for them. My heart breaks and I pray for the families who find this day painful as they remember their loved ones. May God’s peace and strength find you.

But it’s not necessary to have lost a loved one to feel the pain of this day. How can you not pause and pray upon seeing pictures of a widow knelt by a graveside? How can you not feel the remorse of a child [Read more…]

I was having a conversation recently that discussed the needs of the Church.  We began discussing unity and if the North American Church was more or less fractured now than ever before.

We cited recent events like what’s going on with the Tullian Tchividjian, Tim Keller and The Gospel Coalition and the comment sections of the blog post 6 Heretics Who Should Be Banned From Evangelicalism – original and Relevant’s posting. (Note: I appreciated the post, comments – ugh. Though it goes against my hope for conversation and community, comment sections on mainstream blogs are painful and often void of conversation and community).

Which got me thinking, if Tim Keller and Tullian Tchividjian can’t get along, are we in trouble? If the best thing to do concerning comment sections on Christian blogs is to NOT read them, then what does that say?

First the Keller-Tchividjian-Gospel Coalition Fallout. From what I can tell, both are high integrity, laser focused people with no time for distraction. Yet, our Twitter feeds are filled up with what transpired with Tullian kicked out of the Gospel Coalition. TGC is offering a clarification that’s it’s due to a theological difference and Tullian has called that a “flat out lie.” As an outsider who does not follow Tchividjian that closely (he’s too intense for me at times) and as one who is not a faithful reader of TGC, I’d like to hear about another time when a blog kicked someone out over the doctrine of sanctification – Come on TGC. I appreciate that it’s complicated, I chuckle that it has [Read more…]

The Q talk I’ve been thinking about this week is “First World Poverty” by Brian Fikkert.

Some readers of this blog might know him from his book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor … Or Yourself that he coauthored with Steve Corbett.

Lately, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with that book. I appreciated when I read it, but it was all the conversation that I had with those who read it (and said they read it :) that I found some frustration. Normally for me, the conversation brings added dimensions and greater appreciation for the book and while some of that happened, there was also an unexpected negativity and condescension. To be cheeky, the book isn’t titled, Helping Hurts but in fact preceded by the word When.

My frustration was this part of the conversation didn’t push people to help more and in a better way, but instead, it pushed help away (This is a similar point I tried to make in yesterday’s post). Now this not the intent of the book of course, it argues the opposite, but it’s a pattern that keeps getting repeated in my small corner of life.

So when I saw Brian Fikkert listed as a presenter, I had a mixed reaction. First one being, I’m kinda tired of this conversation, perhaps time for a differently framed one, maybe I’ll skip this one. Glad I didn’t because in all truth, his talk was one of my favorites.Here are some of the notes my friend and I took (thanks Jon!):

1. How would you describe success in your own life?  Strong family. Healthy Church. God-sized call.
2. How do you think you can get there? The Spirit, the Church, and community.

Western Economist believe that success is consuming more things, so you need more [Read more…]

I have been walking around wondering if the hashtag #Bringbackourgirls campaign makes a difference. Is it helpful or is it hindering or is it pointless?

The ultimate desired outcome is for these girls to be rescued unharmed and for the evil-doers to be brought to justice. I don’t say this to sound trite but this really is the plot to the movie Taken with Liam Neeson – even better if it could all be done without violence. If this does not happen, it’s obviously tragedy as the most desired outcome is unrealized and things like hashtags feel pointless.

Or are they?

As soon as we saw Michelle Obama holding up the #Bringbackourgirls sign, we probably all  knew this [Read more…]