I am up late these nights. Mostly flipping through the channels as I am to worn out to think straight enough to write well or read well, but not worn out enough to have my mind become inactive enough to fall asleep. I know, this is something that doctor’s can fix. I [...]
Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category
Stealing or Revealing the Identity of Jesus?
Posted: 21st May 2007 by Chris in Church, Spirituality, Youth Ministry3
In a few weeks I am speaking at a youth event on the subject of prayer. I have taught on prayer a number of times over the years, of course — most youth pastors do at some point.
Lately, in preparation for my talk, I have been reading some books on the subject. I [...]
Tomorrow I am off to Nicaragua for five days with Compassion. I am looking forward to seeing some of what they are up to there. For almost 10 years now my wife and I have been sponsoring a few children in partnership with Compassion and are experience has been amazing. I have [...]
Last Friday night I was watching the NBC Nightly News with my friend Jim Newberry. At the end of the program they did a short but very rich story on a guy named Bill Austin. Bill has given out more than 200,000 hearing aids to people all over the world… He seems like [...]
Creativity, Youth Ministry & The Gospel
Posted: 5th April 2007 by Chris in Spirituality, Youth MinistryI am intensely fascinated with creative people. I have never really seen myself as a creative type so being around creative people always inspires and challenges me. Even more than that — it gives me the permission to generate new ideas, imagine, innovate and invent.
I have been reading a short book called, Interactive [...]
This morning I read the following and thought I would share it with you all. It is from one of my favorite books, The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation by one of my favorite authors, Frederica Mathewes-Green.
“We think of theology as an intellectual undertaking, an attempt to construct a systematic, comprehensive [...]
I had the chance to speak at SOULstice last night in Minneapolis. It was great fun. I spoke on the discipline of confession or telling God the truth. Scot McKnight in his book Jesus Creed provides some great insight into what confession means and looks like. I borrowed most of my [...]
Giving Up Tech Stuff For Lent…
Posted: 29th March 2007 by Chris in Media, Spirituality, Youth MinistryThere is an interesting article at CNN.com today about people who are choosing to give up their Facebook and Myspace addictions for Lent — sort of a 21st century way of observing the practice.
I think it is a great way to participate in the practice. I think it could really help those of us [...]
A few weeks ago I posted about Doug Jones’ (one of my good friends and colleagues) blog at www.perigrinatio.com. Lately Doug’s posts have been great. He encourages, inspires and challenges with his writing. I want to — again — encourage you to check out his blog if you haven’t already.
I met Doug [...]
Today I had the privilege of joining two of my friends for a vespers service and a meal at Conception Abbey which is about an hour or so north of Kansas City. You can learn more about the Conception Abbey here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conception_Seminary_College
The Vespers service lasted about 30 minutes or so and it was incredibly [...]