When surveying the landscape and mining the data around what is happening to people in positions of mission and ministry leadership, several trends become apparent. Among them are: While social science research gives us a laundry list of heed-worthy reasons why there is such a crisis in leadership happening today,
“I just wish you could connect with me better, and relate to me at a deeper level,” my wife said. It didn’t sound mad this time—but it was with heartbreaking sadness. After decades of marriage, we were once again having this weighty conversation. My dismissive attachment style wanted to run
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with your head held high” (Leviticus 26:13). As a young child, my Sunday school teacher
We see evidence all throughout Scripture that Jesus was deeply concerned with the matters of the heart. When we take a look at the life and ministry of Christ, we discover a man who saw people in their circumstances—stepping not only into their physical realities, but also their spiritual ones.
Transitions can be hard, especially those that aren’t expected. But even for the ones we long for, there are still lessons to learn, emotions to sort out and most of all, places where we can meet with the Lord. I had always wanted to be married. In my mid 20s,
I had been crying loudly for 15 minutes. My wife was laying peacefully and mostly non-responsive in bed next to me. Cancer had been taking her life for over a year and she was days away from breathing her last breath at age 38. I was at the end of
With our belongings loaded onto a ship for the journey back to the U.S., I find myself sitting among the dust bunnies on the floor of our vacant Tokyo home, pondering the significance of the past 24 beautiful and complicated years. The farewells are over, our missionary roles are finished,
As soon as you hear the word transition or change, I’m sure a range of images, experiences, life stages, and emotions occur. As they signal the end of one thing and the beginning of something else, transitions also include a threshold: the “space between” that incorporates the ending of the
I can’t help but notice that a spirit of argument and polarization seems to have taken over our world. Maybe it feels collectively harder to handle conflict because we’re tired out from the pandemic and wary of political drama, but differences of opinion have existed since the beginning of humankind.
SEEK TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE BEING UNDERSTOOD The first thing most missionaries learn is the mantra, “Different isn’t wrong, it’s just different.” In situations where we don’t understand others’ actions, it can be helpful to look at the ways Jesus related to people and the types of questions He asked them—He
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