Before becoming a pastor, I spent 12 years working as a consultant at various tech startups. I can remember the sound of my first Human Resources Director’s heels as she clodhopped across our high-gloss epoxy floors to begin orientation. With vivid red lipstick she expeditiously exclaimed, “Welcome! Two things we never talk about here: politics...
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“I wish my pastor understood me, believed in me, commissioned me.” I have been sitting with those words for weeks now. They were spoken at a recent conference by Jess Chin—Lausanne Movement board member and founder of Liminal, a collective shaping the next era of global leadership. Jess was talking about Gen Z’s desire for...
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In 1954, about a year before the Montgomery bus boycotts, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached a sermon at his church in Montgomery, Alabama on Romans 12:1–2 entitled “Transformed Nonconformist.” In it, he said this: “Our world needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of annihilation. Dangerous passions of...
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Bruce Waltke, in his brilliant Genesis commentary, points out that “the account of Jacob” from 37:2–50:26, the final toledot of Genesis, maps God’s unifying of Abraham’s line. Here God makes Abraham’s family “worthy covenant partners” (p.191) via two unlikely heroes: Joseph and Judah. Reuben was firstborn, but unworthy of his position. So, God replaced him...
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Karioshi suggests that the necessity of rest can be a matter of life and death. This Japanese word essentially translates as “death from overwork,” a tragically regular phenomenon in Japan in which men and women die, whether of natural causes or suicide, because of too much work and no rest. Even though this concept is...
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Do you want to know who are some of the most dangerous people in the world? Who comes to your mind when I talk about dangerous people—people that can do great harm? Here’s who I have in mind: toddlers. Yes, toddlers. Here’s why I say so: toddlers have newfound mobility, ability, and autonomy, and yet...
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