A friend who has a developed taste for politics but whose soul has not yet been taken over by the partisan body snatchers came by recently and dropped off a book that has helped me avoid the trap of cynicism and despair.  Like all of us who have had small children on road trips we are weary of hearing the kids call each other names, point out minor infractions (“she’s breathing on me again”) and make us turn around countless times and warn them about “one more time and you are going to bed with no dessert tonight.”  Of course, I am not talking about small children.  I am talking…

  Twenty years ago it was likely the missions pastor in a church would have been a retired missionary older pastor or a member of the staff who had worked with seniors in the congregation.  While missions overall was extremely important to the church and denomination ” the decisions about missions and mission giving were fairly simple. Supporting denominational programs or a group of missionaries with strong ties to the church was routine.  There were a relative handful of churches whose mission programs were highly visible compared to the other ministries.  The typical staffing budgets were focused on youth” music ” education and periodic capital campaigns. That has changed dramatically. …

  John Gardner's books and essays on "Self-Renewal" have become classics and I for one hope they discover a whole new market among today's Millennials who are looking for meaning purpose and using their lives for something outside themselves.  Several times he cautions against becoming so good at something that we let other parts of ourselves atrophy and we "go to seed" because we have so focused on one area of our lives.  "Life is an endless unfolding and if we wish it to be an endless process of self-discovery an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the life situations in which we find ourselves. By potentialities…

  As you walk down the hall to my office and look up to the right you will see a sign that says "Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life."  I put it there for a couple of reasons.  First to remind me how much I love what I do – and how little I like jobs.  Second ” because I seem to have more than a few people drop by and disclose they are not doing what they love. I like to have them get a little foretaste of what I am most likely to say before we are finished. I've probably…

Rodney King died recently and of course his most famous line was out of the riots that followed his beating and arrest. "People I just want to say you know can we all get along? Can we get along?"  While that line has been comic fare for years ” I ask myself that question all the time.  I don't like conflict or confrontation and living in the midst of tension drains me. While some like the action of Israel conquering the land of Canaan” I like the verse that goes "Then the land had rest from war."  That is exactly how I would have things end.  Happily ever after and everyone getting along.  Unfortunately that's not…

I received a call today from a friend with whom I’ve not spoken in a couple of years.  He has brain cancer and we were talking about the struggle.  He told me about a time last year when he thought he was going to simply give up and die because of all the complications and stress on him and his family.  I asked him why he didn’t give up and his response was a long pause and then “The presence of God.”  I heard the exact same response from another friend with cancer two days ago when I asked him what was keeping him afloat.  Time and again I have…

  In his short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” published in 1926 D.H. Lawrence describes a young Englishwoman who “has no luck”.  Though she and her husband have expensive tastes neither of them separately or together are able to stay out of the debt necessary to maintain their lifestyle.  They are preoccupied by a sense of failure and as a result the house is permeated by an inaudible but palpable anxiety about the lack of enough money. “And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud. They…

  If you go to Cuba today the single most obvious image is that of Che Guevera.  While he has been dead for 45 years an industry has grown up around that single photo.  He more than any other embodies and perpetuates the revolution.   While most of the countries I’ve visited have portraits and posters of the current leaders (especially dictators) plastered on buildings or hung in offices I saw two public pictures of Fidel and not a single picture of Raul.  However fashion photographer Alberto Che’s image has a quality that allows it to signify anything to anyone and most everything to everyone.  Whatever a person wants to see…

  On May 18-24 a group of 15 Gathering participants flew to Cuba.  Most of us had never been and were curious about what is going on with the church there.  All of us were surprised by what we learned and experienced.  I don’t want to write a full report but would like to focus a couple of blogs on some of the highlights. The influence of China has almost replaced the subsidy of the Soviet Union.  I use those words carefully because China is not subsidizing.  It is in a trading relationship with Cuba.  Still as a result of seeing China’s operating pattern in Africa and other places they…