Lifelong Learning
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Sometimes we encounter experts who have fancy credentials, smacky degrees, and weighty job descriptions. They can give us advice because they have noticed how certain things, processes or situations can be different–hopefully better. This past weekend at our Banff Enriching retreat I encountered 18 experts…not because they had the credentials, degrees or job descriptions to […]
Many groups are starting out this month in some part of the VP3 process. One of the central challenges of Stage 1 is building trust. As we often discuss in the Facilitator Training Retreats, an atmosphere of trust needs to be fostered for the groups to flourish. Without trust, honest and prayerful discovery will become […]
“There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience, and that is not learning from experience.” Archibald Macleish We can live so unreflectively nowadays, always hoping to survive or “get by” with what we already know. We hope what we know will work for the journey ahead. So we shy away from the questions […]
“People are longing to rediscover true community. We have had enough of loneliness, independence, and competition.” Jean Vanier For so many of us today accomplishment, praise, and power are failing to address the deepest longings of our heart. Others admire and even envy our performance, nearly flawless, but inside there is deep and echoing hollowness […]
One of the joys of June is hosting the facilitator training retreats in various parts of the continent. A unique collection of pastors, church staff, and lay people gather in a peer learning environment in order to be prepared to facilitate an Emerging Journey or an Equipping Experience group in their local church context. In […]
We face tremendous pressure in our lives today to be simply spectators of thisJesus. But faithful living has never been a spectator sport. Over 150 years ago Danish Christian thinker Søren Kierkegaard emphasized this by drawing a contrast between being an admirer and being an imitator. He wrote: What, then, is the difference between an […]
On a recent trip to Cincinnati I was enjoying a good cup of coffee and a good conversation with Vic Gordon, a good friend who pastors Kenwood Baptist Church. We were discussing how hard it is at times to gain trust, and how rewarding a relationship can become on the other side of the things […]
On the walls and columns of a grey stoned sanctuary hung twelve to fifteen prints of Rembrandt’s painting Return of the Prodigal Son. The audience was a mix of parents and grandparents and nuns and pastors and students. We were all gathered in a Beverly Hills’ Anglican church to hear writer/speaker Henri Nouwen speak on […]
After Randy and I hosted our webinar yesterday on “Igniting Adult Believers: A Life Story Approach” I was reminded, yet again, of a high school math experience that has become a sort of parable for me. One of the blessings of 10th grade geometry was that the answers to the odd numbered questions could be […]
Over the past couple weeks I have been in both the Calgary area and the Chicago area hosting Facilitator Training Retreats for Emerging Journey facilitators. They are now half-way through facilitating the eight month spiritual formation & discipleship process in their church and have lots to share about how their groups are going and what they […]
“Is it possible for people to miss their lives in the same way one misses a plane?” Walker Percy asks this question in his novel The Second Coming. With his character Will Barrett–a lonely widower, recently retired from a very successful business career—Percy confronts us with a person who has confused all the activity of […]
I came across a question today from a few weeks back: “Where is there breathing space in your life?” And my mind ended up thinking about Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s little book Gift from the Sea. Amidst the seemingly endless distractions of our lives, she asks, how do we remain attentive to that which matters most? […]