Redeeming Church Conflicts

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    Mishandling Twenty-something Men in the Church

    Challies.com linked to a very brief article that is worth your time: Mishandling Twentysomethings (by Anthony Bradley) Let me tempt you with just a snippet: “Most churches have no idea what to do with spiritually mature men in their 20s, so they wrongly direct them to seminary or to a ministry with kids, hoping these guys will rub off on the youth and keep them coming to church and out of trouble. The consequences of this mishandling have been dire …   I am pained, for example, by the number of guys directed to seminary or formal ministry who never should have been because church communities were confused about what…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    Community of Jesus (HT: Tim Keller)

    Yesterday’s sermon-while-walking-Lilikoi was fantastic! If you’d like to understand better what it means to (and doesn’t mean) to turn the other cheek; why it can be just as UNLOVING to NOT confront someone  as it is to confront them gracelessly and harshly; and many other important topics related to community, I encourage you to check this out: The Community of Jesus (by Tim Keller)  

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    Please Pray for Me Today as I Write

    I would so appreciate your prayers today as I am officially one month behind my writing goals for Dave Edling’s and my book (“Redeeming Church Conflicts—Biblical Hope When Your Church is Falling Apart”). Dave has been exceedingly gracious and patient. He knows that my “real job” as wife Tara and Momma Tara is a busy and hard (and important!) one. Still … I need to get our book proposal done. So that’s my prayer request. Would you please pray that at the end of the day today, I can send him a draft of our entire proposal? I’ve made huge progress on it and if I’m diligent (and God gives…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    Shepherding a Church Member Who Doesn’t Like You

    Brian Croft’s blog (Practical Shepherding) is quickly becoming one of my must-reads each day. This post is one example of why: How Do I Shepherd a Church Member Who Doesn’t Like Me? His first point is CLASSIC: “1) Take an interest in what they love and enjoy. I confess I have walked an indoor track with elderly ladies, gardened, played with rabbits, visited people in the hospital I didn’t know, ate food still unidentifiable to me, all to take an interest in what they love so to communicate love for them. Even if they don’t receive it well, this act of humility will sanctify you.” SO true. And SO wise.…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    Disappointed with Your Church?

    Kevin DeYoung has a great three-part series on his blog addressing disappointment in the church: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Consider just a few summary lines from the posts and then do check them out!   Part 1: How should church members respond when they feel unloved, unsupported, or like outsiders in their church? And how should church leaders respond when they are criticized for being unconcerned or the church is faulted for being unloving? Part 2 (for leaders): Do we have some mechanism for personally knowing our sheep? Do we have some way of knowing when people are not showing up at church? Are we confronting cliquishness in…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    How to “Blow Up” a Church (And Its Opposite)

    HT: Challies.com for this link to a brief, but insightful, article by Chuck Lawless: Seven Sure Fire Ways to Blow Up a Church (It begins, “I served as a church pastor for 14 years, have now served for 12 years as a church consultant and have watched hundreds of students begin their local church ministries during my 14 years as a seminary professor. Based on my observations from these various vantage points, here’s what I would do if I wanted to ‘blow up’ a church …”) Worth the read! Oh, and I LOVED LOVED LOVED Pastor Thabiti’s recap of this year’s Together for the Gospel:   Home from T4G If…

  • Redeeming Church Conflicts

    But I Don’t Want to Act in a Loving Manner …

    We are continuing through Paul Miller’s A Praying Life in our women’s study and I’m glad we are. My prayer life truly has changed throughout the course of our time together. I am definitely listening more to God and sharing more of my heart with Him as I go throughout my day. (The subtitle, “Connecting With God in a Distracting World” is a great one—very accurate.) Plus, I just know that if it weren’t for the study, I would never actually FINISH the book. (I start a lot of books but don’t finish all of them.) In addition to the substance of the study, it’s also been good to be…