Author: Rob Loane
Page: 12
One saint from the early church, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-211), defined prayer as “keeping company with God.” In this sense, Jesus invites his listeners to a prayer-ful life—life in the company of his divine community. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone […]
I just got a look at this short video yesterday. A group of Emerging Journey participants at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis gathered to share via film their experience. It is such a clear and encouraging reflection of what this eight-month spiritual formation process can invite in people’s lives. Take a look at their conversation. Wonderful! […]
As the Willow Creek Leadership Summit approaches in a week or so, I found myself thinking about last year’s Summit. One presenter’s thoughts about the practice of silence particularly stands out in my memory. “Mama Maggie” Gobran, a Coptic Christian from Cairo, Egypt, who is a 2012 Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her efforts in founding […]
The most significant book I have read in the past two years has to be Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor: A Memoir. It is the story of his formation and his vocation as pastor. If you are not acquainted with Peterson or only acquainted with his contemporary translation The Message, then The Pastor would be a great […]
Why does it seem like such a rare find when we discover someone who keeps on growing and learning all the way to the finish line? Cultivating prayerful reflective thinking is such a critical element of a maturing person’s life. This is no less the case as a person enters into the later chapters of […]
In Ephesians 4:7-16 the apostle Paul communicates a vision of maturity that one New Testament scholar has summarized this way, “each member contributes to the growth of the body.”[i] This is the mystery of how God’s Spirit nurtures us as Christ’s body. If we are to mature it will be done in the company of others. […]
Anne Lindbergh’s words reminded me this morning of the proclivity so many of us have forliving crowded, cluttered, and consequently, anxious lives. We have said yes to far too many projects and lunch appointments and soccer games and meetings and birthday parties. Our souls weigh heavy with an anxiety that is particular to men and […]
We are a few months away from an annual highlight on our VP3 calendar The Enriching Retreat. We are gathering at a U.S. location this year, Green Lake, Wisconsin (October 5-7, 2012) for a time of shared reflection and discussion, pause and prayer. Randy Reese and I will be inviting a conversation around the topic of “Guiding […]
During the month of March my wife and I led a mission team down to southern Brazil to serve at a ministry called Chain of Love. For two-and-a-half weeks we immersed ourselves in this community that provides, loving, secure, and caring homes for abandoned and abused street children in Brazil. If ever I encountered a […]
This past Friday one of our board members Dr. Pamela Edwards opened our VP3 Board Conference call with a short Advent devotional on Mary. It set the tone so well for us as a staff that we wanted to share it with you. Pam is on staff at Cedar Valley Community Church in Waterloo, Iowa […]
I loved going to the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk as a kid. The stores and amusement rides, the pizza places and popcorn shops, the balloons and cotton candy were all wonderful. Sundays on the boardwalk, however, were something less than wonderful. When I was growing up there were the Blue laws in Ocean City. These […]
Few recent books have helped communicate the transforming power of understanding our lives as a story than Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life (Thomas Nelson, 2009). While working on the movie adaptation of his previous memoir-like book Blue Like Jazz,Miller discovers that what makes for […]