Apprentice 2 Jesus

People

  • Losses we have experienced

    “The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It’s proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically,… Read more

  • The big wager: get out of bed

    A little book by Alan Noble called On Getting Out of Bed is well worth your time. Read more

  • Legacy

    This week we witnessed the national mourning of Jimmy Carter. Viewings in Atlanta and Washington, followed by his funeral, attended by all five living presidents. I was still in elementary school when he was elected president. My only memories of him were around the hostage crisis in Iran, so at that time I was cemented… Read more

  • The joy of Tony Campolo

    I was a teenager when I first heard Tony Campolo preach. Since then I’ve read some of his work, listened to more sermons, and observed someone who lived out the joy of the Kingdom of God. There were the struggles as well. He didn’t hide the struggle of his son walking away from the Christian… Read more

  • The essence of the gospel

    I am opening a new (to me) biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer because I want to examine his life from the lens of a historian and biographer who does the research properly. I am wanting to engage Bonhoeffer again through his writings as well. Read more

  • Heroes and saints

    Years ago I was pastoring a small church in the Twin Cities. One time the nicest lady began coming to our services and she jumped right in to help. She loved missions and learned we did, too. She had been praying for a specific missionary for years while attending another church and then learned we… Read more

  • The horrors we ignore

    Back in the 90s and early 2000’s there were a couple of movies set in Africa where a line was said in both that summed up the world’s attitude: “This is Africa. Nobody cares about Africa.” Sure, rock stars and then Christian artists got together a couple of times and sang some songs and raised… Read more

  • Those times when a phrase or a sentence just stops you

    I can make a bad habit of cruising through an article or opinion piece and letting things just float by. It can be an article I agree with or an opinion piece that makes me mad, but I take in the whole of the piece and sometimes forget to pay attention to details. A piece… Read more

  • The failure

    Dallas Willard left a pastorate in the late 1950s because, he says, “I became so convinced of my ignorance about God and the soul that I thought I was a public hazard.” (Renewing the Christian Mind, Dallas Willard) I feel that deeply. I look back on lessons I wish I had learned more quickly… Read more

  • We need more than information

    Some thoughts from David Brooks on making careful decisions and adding in emotional intelligence: For thousands of years, it was common in Western thought to imagine that there was an eternal war between reason and our emotions. In this way of thinking, reason is cool, rational and sophisticated. Emotions are primitive, impulsive and likely to… Read more