Nine ways to help people in the “too hard” box
How do you help people in the "too hard" box? I mean, the whole reason they're there is that their problem is too hard. One approach is to get degrees in theology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, counselling, psychiatry, and a few other assorted fields and come up with solutions to all the problems. But for most of us, we need something more realistic. We could fall back on the sufficiency of Scripture, and this would be
The damage of the “too hard” box
There is no problem in the "too hard" box that wasn't made worse by being tossed into the "too hard" box. Regardless of how sinister or innocent our motivation may be, the result tends to be the same. The damage to you You might be surprised by the suggestion that tossing people into the "too hard" box damages you, but it does. Because you cannot tolerate a full "too hard" box without harming those most
Christian ministry and the “too hard” box
If you're involved in any sort of Christian ministry, you've probably got a steady stream of "projects" coming across your desk. Births, deaths, engagements, marriages, family problems, relationship issues, etc. And if you've been at it for any length of time, you've probably developed an approach to each of these that allows you to move it from the "inbox" to the "outbox" fairly easily. But what happens when the questions get harder and the problems
The honest epitaph
Funerals are awkward things. At a time when people are most attuned to the hard realities of truth, we often sigh as speaker after speaker tries desperately to make a halo fit around the horns of the dearly deceased. I've often thought, therefore, what it would be like if someone could invent a tombstone that gave an honest epitaph. You know, the real one. Such an innovation—alas, a mere invention of my fancy—would be at
Can faith survive when hope dies?
How does a young mother survive losing two babies? (a press interview with Nancy Guthrie) At KCC's #OneLove14 women's event and #Oxygen2014 week-long conference last month in Sydney, the speaker that touched my heart the most was Nancy Guthrie. Here are questions the press asked Nancy and her candid answers. Q: Was there a time in your life where the rubber hit the road with your faith in Jesus? A: Two days after our baby
Lionel B. Fletcher
I was looking into the life of Australian evangelist Lionel B. Fletcher this afternoon and was amazed to discover that there was no Wikipedia entry for him. I then spent a considerable portion of said afternoon setting that right! I first "met" Fletcher at Bible college when we were assigned to write a review of a Christian biography. My lecturer, David Hill, singled me out and assigned me to read Fletcher's Mighty Moments (his autobiography).
The victim’s acknowledgement
A lady tells her pastor's wife Lauren, “I wish I could talk to you about problems that I'm having in my marriage but I don't think you'd understand. Your marriage is so perfect and your husband is so gentle.” Lauren says something about how the Bible has all the answers. However... deep in her subconscious, something made Lauren feel like screaming, but she squelched it with, “Every marriage has some problems.” Horrifyingly, the hidden facts
So what about separation?
So I've spent the week at Oxygen 2014 sitting under, and publicly engaging, the preaching of men like Don Carson, Francis Chan, John Lennox, Paul Tripp, and Bryan Chapell. But what about separation? What about contending for the faith? Doesn't the fact that some of these men hold to very different theology and some of them have hung out with guys who are really wrong on some stuff matter? How can I, in good
Australia’s premiere evangelical event?
KCC's Oxygen is becoming, it seems to me, Australia's premiere evangelical event. This week 1,500+ Christian leaders have gathered in Sydney to rally around the gospel of Jesus Christ. The dominant majority of the preaching and teaching has been contentful, theologically sound, gospel-saturated, and passionately felt. If you're looking for a place to develop a network of gospel-driven, theologically-inclined, evangelistically-impassioned followers of Jesus the Christ, this is an event you should seriously consider attending when
Some thoughts on Oxygen so far
Here are some observations from my time here at Oxygen 2014 so far. Concerns First, there is a danger that, in trying to bring people together from a broad spectrum of Christian circles, we can so dilute the content of our combined fellowship as to make it tepid. For instance, the most beneficial plenary session so far, from my perspective, has been John Lennox's apologetic discussion. Not because it was necessarily exceptional in it's