Dr. Thomas Blackaby has an essay up at SermonCentral.com entitled, "Pastors: Be Shepherds, Not Sheep." In it, he takes pastors to task: Instead of leading their people to find the heart and mind of God for their own congregations, some pastors seek to copy other “more successful” congregations that have blown past the norm, set new standards, and developed innovative approaches for reaching their communities. These churches have successfully marketed their strategies, and multiple thousands of other churches around the world have bought into their techniques and methodologies. We love to buy other people’s techniques because it means we don’t actually have to come up with our own. We don’t have to do the hard work of going before the Lord on bended knee or going without to fast and pray to seek the heart and mind of our Master. We can open a book or watch a DVD and, poof! There it is already prepared for us! I’ve been trying to have this co...
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StatementFrom: mission.squarespace.com
Post Date: 2008-03-05 20:20:36
One of our guys died on the weekend. I only found out about it today. There was no obituary in the paper and none in the local papers online. I don’t know where his body is tonight. He died, I’m told, of alcohol poisoning. He was truly homeless - that is, unsheltered - and came to our public meals program. In more than a year, I’ve never seen him sober. Not once. On one occasion I asked him point blank if he was going to let the booze kill him. He looked me in the eye and sa...
more FaithFrom: mission.squarespace.com
Post Date: 2008-03-12 20:11:05
I had a conversation tonight with a guy whose been coming to our public meals program. I asked him how he was doing and he said, "not so good." He goes on to tell me that he’s still using. I ask a few questions. We talk. Turns out ’still using’ means that he smoked a joint this morning. Okay, where he’s come from, smoking a single joint is something that needs to be seen in perspective. He’s been clean four months. A recovering addict won’t have their life &r...
more The GuyFrom: mission.squarespace.com
Post Date: 2008-03-19 10:46:28
The Guy just had a heart attack. He’s 24 years old. I thought this was way to young for a heart attack but heart disease, it seems, is also no respecter of persons. So now he’s going for a battery of tests. The doctor wants him to change his diet - more fruit and vegetables, less meat, less salt and fat, etc., etc. There’s an additional allowance for those on social assistance who require a special diet due to illness - like diabetes, for instance. The Guy’s case worker ...
more The Language of the GospelFrom: mission.squarespace.com
Post Date: 2008-03-23 15:17:21
In the town where I went to high school was a hotel. It was never the King Edward, but at one time it was the cream of the local crop. I washed dishes there as a teen. Oh how the mighty have fallen. It is now in the possession of an absent slum-lord who charges $400 + for a room the size of my bathroom. That is not an exaggeration. The folks who get in can’t afford to get out. Why do they get in? Because there’s no first and last month required up-front and you can pay by the week....
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