Simple thoughts on faith, church and discipleship
“There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian…” – E Peterson.
The Baptism of Jesus shows us what total submission and surrender looks like. The Baptism of Jesus shows us what Jesus will do to secure our righteousness. The Baptism of Jesus shows us what the perfect, loving community of the Trinity is like.
What follows then are ten principles of team leadership that I have learned over the last decade, and as the title suggests, these were learned through the hard lessons of disappointing people and then just trying again. In other words, I failed in these areas, and so learned more through failure than through success, which is how a lot of learning seems to happen. I hope they are helpful.
What we have realized though is that to arrive somewhere is simultaneously to leave somewhere else, and that in order to be immigrants to somewhere you also have to be emigrants from somewhere else. Our desire therefore hasn’t just been to be good arrivers in a new place, but also to be good leavers of our previous place.
As my wife and I walked back to the parking lot after the movie, we saw people wearing colourful African print dresses, colourful headcovers, colourful African shirts with matching trousers. These were people from every race, age group, and continent. They were buzzing with joy, just hanging around the foyer, their bond stronger because they had been to Wakanda and back.
Turning 39, getting a traffic ticket, listening to Radiohead, reading Esther, and how it all reminds me that I forget the gospel.
In the context of #metoo and #churchtoo, and the horrific things we are learning through that, I am seriously before the Lord asking how we might create churches that are safe spaces for broken and abused women. Churches where we go out of our way - like our Lord - to dignify women's stories, to offer the living and restorative water of the gospel, and to give meaningful purpose in mission to women who previously felt like they had no place.
We are finding our feet. We love our new home, we are enjoying our new city, and we are thriving in our new church, but that doesn't mean that we don't feel deeply for what we have left behind. You can be excited about where you are and sad about where you left all at the same time. We're human. We are complex like that.
In essence, the text contains a warning from Peter to the church that they shouldn't be surprised when they are rejected and persecuted for the sake of Christ, and in fact they should rejoice in that form of suffering.
