In the book, What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School, Mark McComick, relates the story of Pro-Am tennis tournament. A Pro-Am is a charity event in which tennis professionals compete with and against the weekend warriors to raise some money for a good cause. One competitive tennis pro was highly ranked and wanted…
Years ago, I heard Howard Hendricks tell the story of a kid from a Philadelphian Sunday School class that made a big splash. His Sunday School ran a Scripture memory contest in which hundreds of participants entered and little Johnny demonstrated a knack for memorising the Bible. Not only did he win the contest, he…
As a teenage boy, getting a young girl’s attention could be tricky business. Classroom antics and good-natured teasing could draw the remark, “You’re kind of weird?”, which is code for “You’re funny and I’m interested”. The same words could also mean, “What’s your major malfunction, turkey?” One represents a glimmer of hope while the other…
A lot could be said about the impact in ministry regarding the shift from essentially a theological paradigm to a psychological paradigm. To my mind, we are both helped and hindered and no doubt, bewildered by it all. Take for instance, the therapeutic model of preaching. It advances the idea that the preacher’s role is…
Several years ago, while visiting the United States, we took a family day at Disneyland in Orange County. Thinking the junior rollercoaster might be a good entry point for my ten year old daughter to enjoy thrill rides, we ventured into the queue. As our rollercoaster car began to pick up speed on the first…
My first year in seminary was also the first year for a young lecturer who had just completed his PhD studies in Hebrew at Harvard. Now he set his sights to train eager young minds instructing beginner’s Hebrew, affectionately called “baby Hebrew”. Within weeks, half of the students in his class had dropped out to…
The new pastor arrives, spending the first several months settling in. One of the biggest concerns is a long-serving associate; no matter hard much instruction and coaching the new pastor gives, he can’t seem to bring the associate into an effective and productive place of ministry. Clearly, the associates’ present role is not a good…
Recently, a pastor friend of mine related a run-in he experienced with a parishioner. It seems that one Sunday my friend had the audacity to challenge the congregation concerning their financial giving to God. A member of the congregation promptly let him know, “You have no right to tell me how I should give.” In…
The Call to be Hip A Christianity Today editorial made the statement, “Let’s not kid ourselves that a person’s salvation depends on our ability to discuss Austin Powers.” I can still remember the “bad old days” when a Christian could only embrace the pop culture in a dark room with the shades drawn. Movies, theatre,…
One of our times most enduring images of Jesus comes from the poem, Footprints, in which, Jesus is so near to us that when we can no longer advance, he carries us in his arms. In contrast to this image, the people of the Middle Ages build lofty cathedrals, impressive and awe-inspiring edifices to celebrate…