Church

When I was in high school, someone gave me a copy of Rubel Shelly's book, "I Just Want to be a Christian."  For the uninitiated, Rubel Shelly was an iconic figure in 20th Century Churches of Christ.  (For the record, he's still very much alive in the 21st Century ... check out his blog). When I'm asked about the books that have been most influential in my faith development, this one still ranks in the top five.  Here's why: it offers a clear and compelling call to simply be Christians and not sectarian or denominational.  For one raised in the Church of Christ, it provided a flashlight in the darkness of legalism.  The flashlight was powered by grace. Shelly shares a conversation he had with his father as his father was dying.  They discussed life and faith and matters of the church.  His father looked at him and said, "I…

I used to love playing tether ball.  A ball was roped to a pole and the winner was the first one to completely wrap the ball around the pole.  The ball could only go so far because it was "tethered" to the pole. Animals are trained by being tethered to a secure spot.  They grow up believing they can only go as far as the rope or chain will allow. I believe many of us are hindered by psychological tethers.  From nature or nurture, we inherit a set of limiting beliefs.  We grow up believing we can only go so far.  Perhaps we were trained to "know our place" or were told we weren't good enough. People learning to walk by faith and not by sight must deal with psychological tethers.  We can read "everything is possible for God" and still not believe it. What psychological tethers are holding you…

When it comes to investing, most of us understand the relationship between risk and reward: the lower the risk, the lower the reward.  As risk increases, so does the possibility for a greater return -- or a greater loss. The same is true in other areas of life. Many start-up ventures fail because the founders were reluctant to take any risks.  Or they took a great risk and experienced a great failure.  On the other hand, we enjoy the benefits of great companies who were willing to risk everything and succeeded. Healthy, growing churches know when to minimize risk and when to venture out into the great unknown.  To walk by faith and not by sight is risky. Christ-followers who help other people find their way back to God risk rejection.  They do so because they believe the reward is worth the risk. In marriage, love requires risk.  Although we've…

In buying our house, we found out we could save money on our home owner's insurance by bundling it with our car insurance.  Not only was it cheaper, but since we were able to stick with Progressive, it made the process even simpler. There's was only one catch: as part of the new policy, we are required to use Progressive's Snapshot device for thirty days.  In case you don't know, it's designed to plug into your car's computer and uploads a record of your driving patterns. Before plugging in Snapshot, I was perfectly comfortable with my driving patterns.  I stopped before hitting the car in front of me.  But noooooo, that's not good enough for Snapshot.  I get penalized if I stop too fast -- Snappy (that's my pet name for this annoying device) beeps three times to let me know I could have stopped more gently. And it's always…

Integrity lies in the gap between. The closer a person's behaviors are to their beliefs, the greater the integrity that person has.  When the gap is stretched to the point where one side cannot see the other, integrity is weakened, if not lost altogether. Parents may say to their children, "I want you to tell the truth" but if the child has never seen that behavior in the parent, the gap between erodes the message. A leader may hold followers to one set of criteria or expectations without ever holding themselves to the same standard.  The gap between demotivates and disillusions. People of character are continually working to minimize the gap between. In biblical terms, it means to not just be a "hearer" of the word but also a "doer" (James 1:22). As long as we're human, the gap will never be completely closed.  That doesn't mean we have to…