31Mar, 2010

Ten Reasons Pastors are Important

Posted by Don
100

Yesterday afternoon, I talked with a friend on the phone who has been a pastor for more than twenty-five years. He’s an upbeat, optimistic guy who has brilliant ideas and loves shepherding the people who come to his church. I have always thought being a pastor is one of the hardest things a person could do, but my friend makes it look easy. It never occurred to me how hard his job was until I asked him how I could pray for him. He told me that the coming week was going to be difficult, that he had to officiate two funerals, one of them a suicide. He said he’d done many funerals, but these two were very close to his heart. Can you imagine having to speak at a funeral? Moreover, can you imagine having to speak for God at a funeral? Can you imagine having to speak for God at a wedding, even? And not only that, can you imagine having to preach a sermon every week, lead a staff, counsel broken marriages, provide vision for a community, and all under the microscope of a small percentage of people that would judge you if you drove a nicer [...]

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30Mar, 2010

The Greatest Impact You Have May Come out of Your Pain

Posted by Don
103

Have you ever met somebody who has been hurt, wrongfully hurt and is bitter about it? It’s difficult to have compassionr, even though they have a right and reason to be bitter. We may want justice for them, and may even have empathy, but there is something imperfect about the story. And yet I find bitterness is easy when I’ve been wronged. Vengeance is a normal reaction, it seems, a human reaction. What else are we supposed to to with our pain? Years ago I read a book called Country of my Skull, about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. The TRC was a commission put together by Nelson Mandella to hear cases of crimes against humanity committed under apartheid. Mandella asked Bishop Desmond Tutu to head up the commission. When asked what sort of people Tutu wanted to serve with him, he answered he wanted victims, people who knew firsthand the atrocities of apartheid, those whose lives had been ripped open, who’d lost families and loved ones. But what he said next would change my life forever. Tutu said he did not just want the victims who had stayed victims, but he wanted victims who had forgiven [...]

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29Mar, 2010

The Problem with Black and White Thinking

Posted by Don
2

Generally speaking, you are either a Republican or Democrat, a Calvinist or Arminian, you either believe we are shaped by nature or nurture, you either like Neil Diamond or you don’t, and even as you read this, you either agree with the statements I just made or you disagree. We think Fox News is brainwashing or truth-telling, we are Democratic or Marxists, evolutionists or creationists. There is either right or wrong, good or bad, beautiful or profane, right? Such thinking wouldn’t make it through the door of an undergraduate course in logic, yet it’s commonplace in our arguments. And it’s a problem. Black-and-white, either-or thinking polarizes people and stunts progressive thought. Moreover, we begin to believe whatever thought-camp we subscribe to is morally good and the other morally bad, thus demonizing a threatening position, further stunting our ability to think and find truth. Instead, we are armed with ammo from the twenty-four hour news cycle that helps us defend our identities rather than search for truth. There are places where this sort of thinking doesn’t prevail, however. I remember hanging out at Reed College, back in the day, and wondering how odd it was that people’s identities weren’t attached to [...]

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28Mar, 2010

What’s Coming Up on the Blog This Week?

Posted by Don
0

I’m enjoying the direction the new blog is going. Forcing myself to tackle an issue or share some bit of life each day has been a terrific exercise in both writing and thinking. And I’ve enjoyed our dialogue, as well. I try to chime in once or twice per blog, but I read every comment. Thanks for your interest. Here is what’s coming up this week: Monday: The Problem with Black and White Thinking On Monday I’ll look at the problem of black-and-white thinking and how it stunts intellectual growth. My guess is this post is going to stir up some controversy. We shall see. Tuesday: The Greatest Impact You May Have May Come Out of Your Pain On Tuesday I will be talking about the benefit of hard times. This blog will be especially interesting to those who are hurting right now. In this blog I talk about some of the hard things that have happened in my life and what good things have come from them. I truly look at dark seasons different these days. Wednesday: The Reasons Pastors are Important I’ve noticed a lot of cynicism about church (and engaged in some in my day) and yet [...]

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26Mar, 2010

How to Change a Negative Character Trait

Posted by Don
0

Years ago I read a little psychology book by Don Riso and Russ Hudson about personality types, a topic I geek out on, to be honest. The book talked about the character faults of different personalities, and as I read my own, I became a bit dismayed. I wondered how I could change negative characteristics that seemed to be interwoven in my DNA. How would I change who I seemed to be in my core? There are spiritual answers to this question, of course, but I am talking about something more practical. I’m talking about how we stop feeling jealous or talking too much or giving in to self pity. I was greatly helped by a short piece of advice at the end of the book. The authors hardly focussed on the advice, almost mentioning it in passing, but I may have gotten more from that single mention than anything else in the book. If you grew up in a home or faith tradition that made you feel guilty all the time, did it work? Did you change? And what do we do with truths from scripture that tell us there is now no condemnation for those who are in [...]

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