My 6-month hiatus is over. I last posted June 3rd as life took an interesting turn.

I left Los Angeles and pastoral ministry to pursue an incredible opportunity. My beloved seminary (George Fox Evangelical in Portland)  had an unexpected vacancy and was in need of a theology professor for the year. I volunteered and moved to Portland in August.

The move has been great. Being a professor is fantastic. I have been writing a book with my mentor Randy Woodley and working on my dissertation (more on all of this next week). It has been a wild and woolly faith-filled-risk!  My contract runs through July 2017 but I have no idea what next August holds for us. Prayers would be appreciated on that front …

Earlier this year I had decided to get off both FaceBook and Twitter to focus on some bigger projects. That turned out to be an excellent decision.  I will continue that practice until the dissertation is finished but I did want return to the blog. I have missed the interactions dearly.

This coming week I will post some quick thoughts to wade back into the conversation. Each post will also have a recommended resource that might serve as a great gift this holiday season.

Two links for today:

I recently wrote ‘Uncontrolling Church Leadership’ as a response to a new book called The Uncontrolling Love of God.   The book is definitely worth the read.

I attempt to argue that:

The reality of being human and ministering with humans to humans is that not everything is always a possibility! There are certain choices that are simply not on the menu of possibilities. We are dealing with a limited menu. This narrowing happens in two definite directions:

  1. Not every action is available to everyone in every circumstance. While we are actors with a certain degree of agency within our own circumstances, our past experiences limit the options that we see as ‘available’ on the menu of possibilities in any given scenario.
  2. Even those possibilities we are aware of become limited further when options that do not live up to the model of Christ are eliminated. We are not at liberty to use methods that counter the revealed nature and character of God in order to accomplish things in God’s name and to God’s glory.

 

I also wanted link you to something that I wrote for last year’s Advent that seems even more appropriate this December. It is called Advent Lament and you can find it here: http://blogs.georgefox.edu/seminary/advent-lament-you-dont-have-to-pretend-this-advent/

I look forward to your feedback, comments, and questions. I have the next week of posts planned but after that is open to suggestions. Let me know what you want to address. 

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