Excerpts and links for my five favorite articles from 2013. These may not have gotten the most shares or views, but they reflect my writing style and core beliefs. Enjoy.
1. “Holy Resignation” Chosen as the third most read article from 2013 for Today’s Christian Woman (Rather than trying to change each other, or giving up on each other–neither of which work too well–we’ve found this “technique” helpful in navigating the sometimes choppy waters of marriage.) to see the other nine, click here.
Though we share many things in common (faith, blue-collar background, education, and passion for the arts), we have had to navigate significant personality differences. He’s Italian. He likes loud, sustained conversations that go well into the night. I like to be in bed, with a book, at 9:00. He thinks I fail as host if there’s not five times as much food on the table as our guests could ever eat. I hate wasting food. He has TDD (Time Discrepancy Disorder–don’t bother googling it. I made it up.) I’ve learned that when he calls to tell me he’s leaving work, I need to ask, “Define leaving. Is your computer browser still open or is your key in the ignition?” Little things these. To quote Eeyore, “We all have our ways.”
To read the remainder, go to Today’s Christian Woman
2. “When God Doesn’t Seem to Answer Our Prayers” Relevant Magazine
What if, rather than interpreting God’s “no” or “not yet” as punishment or indifference, we view it as an invitation to be transformed? C.S. Lewis writes in The Problem of Pain, “We are a Divine work of art, something that God is making and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character.”
Please click Relevant
3. “Chipotle, Stewardship, and the Theology of What We Eat” Relevant Magazine
Mankind tends to understand subdue and dominion in militaristic terms and thus relate to the earth as unreflective proprietors empowered to exploit. Slaughtering buffalos to the brink of extinction and strip mining illustrate this unfortunate penchant. But if we explore these concepts within the entire biblical narrative, a very different paradigm emerges.
To read the remainder, go to Relevant Magazine
4. “Is the Seeker Sensitive Church Failing a Generation?” Christianity Today/Her.meneutics
Being aware of those who come through the doors of any organization is a good thing. I have walked out of many services without a single person engaging with me. However, many churches gradually, and perhaps unwittingly, transitioned from being appropriately sensitive to the needs of their congregants to becoming–if you’ll permit some pop-psychologizing–co-dependent with them.
What does co-dependence look like within a church? Avoiding sections of Scripture out of fear that certain power pockets will be offended. Believing that repeat attendance depends primarily upon the staff’s seamless execution of Sunday morning–rather than the manifest presence of God. Eliminating doleful songs from the worship repertoire because they might contradict the through line that “following Jesus is all gain.”
This one was up on Her.meneutics’ site.
5. “Personal Transformation” Christianity Today/Gifted for Leadership (As leaders, we can stall out and forget the reality that we have to be the kind of people we want those we lead to become.)
“Because we live in a culture which values success above maturity, we can easily overlook warning signals meant to communicate that our priorities are amiss. In his last two years in the pastorate, one gifted leader repeatedly spun the same ministry stories, all of which took place more than 20 years ago. To those who sat under him, it became increasingly clear that he was stuck. It came as no great surprise when he announced that he was leaving the church and moving on to other ventures.”
Thanks for reading!