Apprentice 2 Jesus

Posted on July 23, 2021July 22, 2021 by Dan

Our continued hardness of heart

The past few years have done everything possible to crush the “eternal optimist” in me. Politics. Racial justice. Women in ministry. Sexual abuse in the church.

I’m grateful that I cling to Christ. Yet, in my search for what the Church can do in Kingdom work, I continue to be crushed and disappointed. All we are getting is a continuing “double down” methodolgy. We’re doubling down on Christian nationalism, racism, “complementarianism”, and guarding the leaders rather than believing victims in sexual abuse cases.

Posted on July 22, 2021July 21, 2021 by Dan

Things to chew on

I came across this quote a few days ago and it still rattles around in my head:

The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty. — Anne Lamott

Posted on July 21, 2021 by Dan

History does indeed repeat itself

Read American history,
You will see
laws being pushed now, legally
by those who spurn racialized reality
mirror sins of their ancestry
almost exactly the same as 1963
They curse(d) and kill(ed) Black people and POC
Creatively justify bigotry
Calling selves Christians-oh really?
— Marlena Proper Deida Graves (@MarlenaGraves) July 21, 2021

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Dan

Prophetic words do cut at times

This clip is incredibly powerful and serves as a sharp example of a prophetic word.

The further in and deeper down black preachers go into white evangelicalism the more anti-justice and anti-black they become.

The more “further down” and “deeper in” Black preachers go into white evangelicalism the more anti-justice and anti-Black they become. – @CharlieDates
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥👇🏿
pic.twitter.com/CDr5wPDMTF
— Jimmy Butts (@jbuttsthird) July 19, 2021

Posted on July 18, 2021July 18, 2021 by Dan

We are not yet broken

I love David French. He pulls no punches. This past week my own (new to me) denomination has been exposed for mishandling sexual abuse claims in a diocese. French highlights that to point out the ongoing problems we have in the American Church.

Posted on July 17, 2021 by Dan

Clinging to “gospel”

Philip Yancey had an interview in Publisher’s Weekly reflecting on his upbringing. I wish I had been a bit quicker to my own realizations like Yancey, or Eugene Peterson. I’m a slow learner.

Posted on July 15, 2021 by Dan

The resurrection matters and it SHOULD be evident in the Church

When a church, or a church denomination, faces controversy, THIS SERMON gives a great example of how to expose the issue because it is necessary to expose the issue, and all the while still believing in the resurrected Christ.

Posted on July 14, 2021 by Dan

Camera angles matter in a Zoom world

Online church has its challenges:

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Dan

Put Not Your Hope in the Nation (Psalm 146)

Every line of this song is so deeply impacting to me. It is wonderful to listen to again and again.

One verse in particular:

He is the hope of the hungry
He is the Lord of the feast
Our Father’s house always opens wide
To welcome refugees

Posted on July 11, 2021 by Dan

The church can do better

Twenty years ago the scandal of the Roman Catholic Church in Boston broke wide open with the series of stories of sexual abuse in the Boston Globe. Those revelations rippled through the Catholic Church year after year. I can remember the profound impact it had in the Twin Cities when I pastored there.

Over the past few years that abuse that has gone covered up in other parts of the American Church has slowly been revealed. As it tends to happen, scandals that break “out there” generally start to circle in tighter and tighter until it reaches a circle close to you… or a circle you are in. When it was “out there,” it was easy to look at the speck in someone else’s eye and think it was a log. Now, the log is revealed.