I’ve been thinking lately about cruciform ministry and the constant struggle against idolatries that our hearts generate regarding Christian community.  The subtle temptations to power and the lure of manipulative techniques are constants.  Marva Dawn writes brilliantly about this in her book, Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God.  This rest of this post is from her chapter […]

David Brooks has a fascinating project going.  He’s asked people over 70 to send him brief reports on their lives to this point. What he’s received amounts to a collection of wisdom, a wealth of reflections that become lessons in life for the rest of us.  These are fascinating, inspiring, heartbreaking, and seriously instructive.  He’s […]

One of the biggest lessons many of us learned in our missional church plant was the necessity of receiving the church as a gift.  We all had our dreams, plans, and ambitions about the shape the church was to take.  We found that our community couldn’t bear the weight of our various demands.  We were […]

* Given at Midtown Christian Community, December 2, 2006   Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, […]

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, the season on the Christian calendar that climaxes at Christmas.  What does the word “Advent” mean?  It means “something’s coming,” “something’s about to arrive.” We call it “Advent season” because the Christian church takes this time of the year to intentionally do what all of creation is doing.  Creation […]

Cruciform leaders do not view people as the means to achieve other goals.  The people to whom we minister are the goal.  The whole point of Jesus-shaped leadership is to take the initiative to see that God’s grace and love arrive into the lives of others. Christian leaders are servants of others on behalf of […]

Last weekend in San Francisco Scot McKnight hosted a discussion with two pastors about commentaries.  Scot asked these pastors to speak to scholars about the realities of their sermon preparation and what they find really useful in commentaries. They highlighted commentaries that deal with difficult textual issues in plain language and that give some helpful […]

Cruciform leadership constantly adjusts to God’s agenda.  This is significantly different from worldly forms of leadership, which are oriented by the leader’s agenda. Worldly leadership is leader-determined.  It’s all about “my dream,” or “my vision for this church.”  Churches with charismatic leaders are often compelling communities for a time, but they seldom manifest cruciformity. I […]

The Bible has much to say about leadership generally, but two specific texts contrast God’s aims for leaders of his people with corrupted forms of leadership—Mark 10:42-45 and Deut. 17:14-20. Taking a cue from these texts, I will discuss cruciform Christian leadership by contrasting it with worldly leadership practices.  This may help us discern how […]

Cruciformity is essential for understanding everything about being Christian and for being satisfied in living as Christian people.  By cruciformity I mean having every aspect of our lives and church communities oriented by the cross-shaped life of Jesus. Cruciformity is a powerful notion because it is the only way to gain access to the resurrection […]