Effort, Excellence, and Exclusion: Three challenging “E” words…
I’ve been fortunate enough to have pastored churches which grew. And I loved the challenge each brought – adding new buildings, enlarging the staff, seeing people grow in their love for Jesus and each other. But each time we came up against what I call the “effort, excellence and exclusion dilemma”. What happens when we grow to a point where what used to be good enough, no longer meets the required standard? To be clear, while much of my life is lived within the broad parameters of the church, the issue is far wider. It’s when the amateur dance teacher has a...
Read MoreCross-carrying or rest? The Matthew 10:38 and 11:28 paradox.
In a church I served as pastor, several leaders from the church would meet for prayer before each service. Though sincere, the prayers were predictably repetitious and I’d often be able to pick what someone would pray before they said it. One favourite was the request that God would “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” It’s kinda clever, though now I’ve heard it in so many places I realise it didn’t have the originality I initially ascribed to it. It points to an interesting little paradox. Are churches about comforting disturbed people, or...
Read MoreWhen you can’t unfriend…
I don’t know what your relationship with Facebook is like, but on the whole, mine is pretty good. It’s introduced me to over 2000 friends, the majority of whom I didn’t know before, and they often like or share my posts, introduce me to new concepts or generally enrich my life. On rare occasions a few have proved troublesome – some trying to offer me services I definitely don’t want, others being rude about things I had said in ways that showed they were playing to another audience and yet others linking me to long tag lists which implied that I supported...
Read MoreKnowledge or Wisdom?
I chair the academic board of an Australian University College and at a recent board meeting we were discussing “the democratisation of knowledge”, which is a lovely little expression noting that information is now readily available to almost anyone. It’s simply true. I have been lecturing in class and said something like “that happened in 1827 – or was it 1828” and in less than 30 seconds I will have a student say, “Actually it was 1826 , the 4th of May 1826 to be precise – I’ve just checked on Google.” Mercifully most of my...
Read MoreCounting our more complicated blessings…
You’ve probably been taught to count your blessings. It’s good advice. When we count them we usually discover there are far more than we initially imagined, and it is certainly more refreshing to be in the presence of a grateful person than one who feels cheated and bitter. But what are we to make of what William Sloan Coffin has called “our more complicated blessings”? The expression is found in a challenging prayer from Riverside Church which Gil Rendle cites in his excellent new book on leadership, Quietly Courageous (2019) p11. Here is an excerpt from it: And, grant us to count our more...
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