Ken

Now that I'm officially in my forties (40, to be exact), it's interesting to reflect back on my twenties and thirties from a relational perspective. We didn't have kids until our late twenties, so much of our twenties was lived as DINKS (double income, no kids).   Lest you think we were on the fast track, our "double income" consisted of a teacher's paycheck and a pastor's salary.  Not knowing it as much at the time, we were blessed to have many mentoring relationships with people older than us.  In fact, one of the couples we spent a considerable amount of time with was three and a half times our age.  He was a retired Naval officer and he gave me a great tutorial on how to handle people. I'm not sure if they set out to mentor us or if it just happened.  Many of my best leadership lessons were…

Found this article via Twitter (thanks to @jamesreiner).  It's from the Wall Street Journal and it's about coffeehouses and how they have changed over the years.  Here's a quick sample: We've become a nation of coffee sophisticates—to the point where McDonald's feels compelled to roll out some semblance of an espresso program—but we're still rubes when it comes to the real purpose of the place: It's not the coffee. It's what your brain does on it. The article does a good job talking about how coffee shops began as a place of discourse. It's where students and academics, activists and organizers, or just people with time for opinions and conversations, met to discuss things.  The atmosphere was loud.  The conversation was the primary selling point, not the coffee.  The coffee just fueled the dialogue.  But something changed.  Here's what the author says: Which brings us to the laptop. At any…

It's an incredible time we're living in.  With a few clicks of the mouse, we have more information available to us than we can imagine.  I can read theological journals, follow thought leaders on Twitter, and scan blogs ranging from marketing to ministry. In our day, we have instant access to more teaching about the Bible than any generation before us. And what has been the result? Biblical literacy is decreasing, not increasing.  Cross-shaped values seem on the decline.  Servant leadership remains a niche not the norm.  Christ-followers gossip at the same level as non-believers. Here's the truth: Simply looking at food doesn‘t nourish you.  Moving it around on your plate doesn't fuel the body.  Attending lectures about the five food groups might be slightly entertaining but won't satisfy your hunger. You have to eat it. The same is true with the Bible.  Listening to others talk about the Bible…

In my day-to-day encounters with people, I have noticed an uptick in the number of challenging situations people find themselves in.  We began offering prayer at the conclusion of our worship services and every single time we have multiple people wait for prayer.  And when they share a struggle or challenge, you have to believe there are ten others who didn't have the courage to come forward for prayer. It just seems like a pretty heavy time. In my morning reading, I came across something Corrie ten Boom once said about surviving tough times.  For those who haven't heard of her, she was a Holocaust survivor who lost her sister and father to the death camps.  After the war, she went on to have a powerful Christian witness.  Here's what I read: "Look within and be depressed.  Look without and be distressed.  Look at Jesus and be at rest." When…

I'm not one to go around quoting Tom Brokaw.  I gave up watching network news years ago, though I have enjoyed Brian Williams' sense of humor when he appears on shows like David Letterman. In working on this weekend's message, I came across a line from Brokaw that is worth passing on.  In a 1999 graduation speech at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico, he said, "It is not enough to wire the world if you short-circuit the soul.  Technology without heart is not enough." Well said. I'm afraid we've done a better job of wiring the world than feeding the soul.  We have multiplied the computing power of the average cell phone at a faster rate than we've learned to appreciate spiritual realities. In some ways, we have willingly short-circuited the soul in order to avoid wrestling with matters that transcend the here and now: Eternity.  Evil. …