Living and Teaching Stories Rooted in the Mission of God
Today is International Day of Peace. It is a time to slow down and reflect not only on global peace, but on the way each of our lives reflect (or fails to reflect!) the way of peace as was embodied in Jesus. My prayer to start to start the day: “Lord, may your people reflect, …
Continue reading “International Day of Peace: Reflections on an Issue We Can’t Afford to Get Wrong”
I spent this past week living on a small houseboat with bunch of freshman boys on Lake Shasta. While living in extremely intimate quarters with 70 teenagers (4 houseboats) can be quite intimidating (and odoriferous!), it was not what intimidated me most about this time. Having committed to speak for this annual “Houseboats” trip close …
(Pic: Our daughter Ruby with a Muslim family that recently fled Afghanistan as persecuted refugees) Confession: I often fall victim to stereotype and blind prejudice against those outside of my cultural, religious or ethnic circle. I believe many of us have allowed the polarizing and hateful rhetoric of media/politics to inform us on who we …
This is an excerpt from my book, Teaching Through the Art of Storytelling, which releases in paperback today! As a direct result of these historical events, the teaching of the religious Christians took a turn in a whole new direction. In response to the clinical baptism that had become so common starting with Constantine, preachers and …
Continue reading “Constantine, Conversion and the Sales Pitch”
Teaching Through the Art of Storytelling releases in paperback this week! You can pick up the paperback copy here or the Kindle version here. This is an excerpt from Chapter 2, which explores Jesus’ use of parables (Jewish Agada) as a first century Rabbi. It‘s important to remember that Jesus‘ parables sometimes contain hidden messages. …