David Powlison: ‘Those who lack friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts….This communicating of a man’s self to his friends works two contrary effects; for it redoubles joys and cuts griefs in half.’ (Francis Bacon, ‘Of Friendship,’ 1625) A former pastor of mine often reminded us of these truths and called us to genuine, authentic friendship (the “one anothering” of Scripture).  I am praying that even today I will BE a friend and GROW even just one or two friendships a little more in grace and intimacy. For it really is not good to be alone. Blessings on your Tuesday! Yours, Tara B. 

We just finished our afternoon peacemaking training and we’re about to start the marriage retreat. What a JOY it was to spend time with the leadership of this church! What an honor. Their love for God and the Church–and their interest in biblical peacemaking reminded me of this article by Ajith Fernando. Hope you enjoy! Yours, Tara B. ———- LEADERS AS IN-HOUSE PEACEMAKERS by Ajith Fernando I have found that one of the most important roles of leaders is to be “in-house peacemakers,” that is, to lead in solving unity problems within the group they lead. This priority is seen in the high priestly prayer of Jesus when he prayed…

Well … I tried my best to present a new teaching this afternoon in a sensitive, biblically-faithful, honest, gospel-focused way: Persevering with Grace When our Leaders Let Us Down: As wonderful as headship is (and it is wonderful!), our leaders are not perfect. No matter how hard they try, their leadership of us will always be flawed. They may misunderstand us, take offense at something we do or say, or simply not like our personality. In their fallenness and sin, they may actually wrong us intentionally. Often, they hurt us most deeply by their neglect—they fail to give us the proactive attention and care we long for. So how do…

TakeYourVitaminZ linked over to an interesting article by Craig Groeschel entitled, “How to Be Sure Your Small Group Ministry will Fail“. I cringed and laughed and resolved to talk about them with Fred as we continue to (strive to) lead our small group well. Consider just a few: Make sure the senior pastor isn’t in a group. If small groups aren’t modeled by the pastor, they won’t have much of a chance for success. Make sure the senior pastor doesn’t talk about small groups. If small groups don’t ever find their way into a sermon, it will help reduce the likelihood of success. Make sure small groups are not staffed…

TakeYourVitaminZ linked over to the trailer for a movie about forgiveness that, well, I’m a little scared to see (to face such horror  and suffering!) but also very interested to see (because of its honesty and call for mercy and forgiveness): As We Forgive  

This morning, my friend Andrew (you know him as “Andrew from Boston” as a frequent commenter on this blog) sent me an encouraging note (he’s been encouraging me for ten years now!) and a link to a video that I was glad to have watched: The Internet Slambook In it, the speaker talks about a cruel ritual that girls in her junior high used to do (they created “slambooks” and wrote awful things about other girls in it)–and then she shares some good thoughts about how we are all prone to remember and fixate on harsh criticism we receive (even from relative strangers!) rather than the honest feedback of true…

Another classic from the only e-devotional I read Mon-Fri, RZIM’s Slice of Infinity: Relational Testimony (by L.T. Jeyachandran) Let me tempt you with just a snippet: “As an apologist, I am often engaged in conversations that involve the philosophical, theological, scientific, and historical reasons by which one could reasonably conclude that Jesus is exactly who he said he was–the eternal God now come in the flesh. But interestingly enough, Jesus tells us in John 13:34-35 that the final apologetic by which this world will recognize that he was sent by God is the demonstrable love-relationship that will be seen in the lives of his disciples. Why is it that the…

Wow! I just read my daily “Slice of Infinity” from Ravi Zacharias ministries and since it is perfectly on point to my most recent post, I encourage you to check it out: Magnanimmity Let me tempt you with just a brief excerpt: “… Acedia was considered one of the most serious of sins. It manifested itself in sloth or spiritual despair, but more significantly embodied the temptation to give up caring about anything truly important. Acedia led to spiritual impotence and smallness of heart. Spiritual impotence would allow vice to flourish and virtue to languish, not because vice was purposely chosen or intentionally entered into, but because spiritual lassitude desiccated…

I received an interesting question from a women’s ministry leader and I thought I’d share my response to her with you. The gist of her question had to do with the fact that after a recent retreat, their women’s ministry leadership team met, and one of her leaders shared how “someone” had been offended by the style or worship music used at the event. This woman asked for my advice and this is what I told her: “Dear [name], I’m sorry that you had to receive some ‘nameless, faceless’ criticism. It’s always hard to learn that we’ve offended ‘someone’ but that person hasn’t talked to us, they’ve talked to others.…

Pastor Anyabwile has another great post on church membership that I encourage you to check out: What God Has Joined Together In it, he quotes John Stott and that made me want to go and grab my old books by Dr. Stott. I think he was one of the very first theologians I read as a new Believer back a zillion years ago in my late-teens, early twenties. Thank God for the (imperfect!) Church!   Yours, Tara B.