biblical preaching | adaptive leadership | congregational health
there is something disturbing about consigning cultural artifacts to the dustbin of history simply because the way they represent a person, culture, or event seems (or is in fact) either inaccurate or offensive or both…. In other words, The Mikado is not being offered as an introduction to Japanese culture. Instead, it's being offered as an example of nineteenth century English operetta with all the limitations that that entails.
What does the pastor's marriage tell us?
What the church is missing in our discussion of human sexuality is any notion that there is a third way of conceiving of this that is different from decision or determinism. That third way re-appropriates the ancient church's understanding of the Christian life as one of practices and beliefs that inculcate virtue into the life of Christian through the communion of the church. This is needful, of course, far beyond simply the issue of our human sexuality. As the church moves into a post-Christendom culture, it is vitally necessary that we develop practices that will sustain us as a missionary people in the midst of skepticism.
Self-acceptance means coming to the place where you're able to accept yourself as you are. You can only get there through coming to accept God's unconditional electing love that chose you just as you are not on the basis of your idealized self or even your future self. No. God saved you because he loves you. And he loves you because he saved you. File that under the category of "mystery."
Everyone has dreams. Some abandon them. Others embrace them. Some try and fail. Others fail to try. Many find a new success in their failures. It wasn't the success they thought they'd experience. It was a peculiar success whose genesis lay in the failure of their first dream.
