Celebrity culture in the church
It’s so enticing, and so much a part of the US evangelical church culture. Yet the lure of celebrity can deceive us into agreeing with much that is not God.
To the exiles scattered by toxic church
Maybe the church has become bewildering to you. Leaders you trusted and people you respected are acting in ways that do not reflect who Jesus is, nor what they profess to believe. They have turned on anyone among them who appears to threaten the status quo. What is going on?
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Beware the illusion of refuge: Abuse in the church
Any number of motives can prompt leaders in our church systems to create an illusion that refuge for the abused exists, where it does not. “They say, ‘All is well, all is well,’ when it is not.” So how can we know?
The truth will set you free
Since childhood, I’ve treasured what Jesus said in John 8:32. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Yet somehow, till now, I have not seen the diamond in its setting, so to speak. I have not seen the import for us all.
Witchcraft in the church
When witchcraft is disguised, we may look right at it and not know what we're seeing. We may cooperate with it, and not know what we're doing. We may be targeted by it, and not know what is happening. We can be very fooled for a very long time.
When Christian leaders reject God
I saw it for the first time in a meeting I called and led. No. Actually: I realized then what I had been seeing for years. It broke my heart. I’ve tried to tell the story twice before. Both times, I described what happened in that meeting, but did not include any backstory. Now it’s time to write the whole story. Bring honor to your name, holy Lord.
Adulthood and the church
God created us to grow to adulthood – spirit, soul and body. Scripture calls us to do just that. The role of leaders, like the role of parents, is to encourage and affirm this process, not to ensure that everyone except the leaders remains perpetually one-down.
Checklists, idols and loving God
The preacher urged people to love the Lord with all their hearts. Yet, tragically, he himself did not know how to do it. He did not know what wholehearted devotion to God looks like. He could only offer a checklist.
Bucking the system: Shunning, submission and Jesus
When you earnestly seek to do what’s right, inside a system you do not recognize as broken, you’re asking to be blindsided. When you implicitly trust leaders who depend on the system for power, image and funds, you’re asking to be betrayed. Not seeing what you need to see, you won’t have a clue what’s going on.
When Christian leaders omit the obvious
Even a cursory look at all levels of leadership in US churches, denominations, networks and ministries reveals that what should be foundational is often absent. Many leaders do not know how to follow God.
Leah no more
How many women today can testify: The church culture, to which we have given ourselves, has used us and used us to make someone else look good, while profoundly rejecting our personhood, our adulthood, our worth, us.
Sort of like frog gigging: How religion kills rest
Today where you live, religiosity slaughters Sabbath by the very way it tries to keep it. But when people desperate for rest leave the comfort of religious exhaustion and stumble toward God himself, Sabbath remains – and the Lord of Real Rest revives them.