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I recall in my mid-twenties sharing my faith story with a very wise man. After listening attentively for 20 minutes or so, he responded with a few affirmations and observations and prayers for me. His one observation that still lingers with me today is this: “Rob, seems like growing up you knew all your answers […]
We all need good company and wise perspective when we face adversity. I want to recommend to you a recently published book that generously provides both. Our friend Scott Shaum has written The Uninvited Companion: God Shaping Us In His Love Through Life’s Adversities. By opening both the Scriptures and his life to us, Scott invites us […]
We are excited to share with you the upcoming changes to The Journey. And over the next couple weeks you will be hearing a lot about how to get your hands on the new process materials. For those of you insiders to the process and leading the process, let me give you a bit of sneak peek […]
“Our story is meant to reveal the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.” This week I have found myself returning over and again to these words. Here is their context. In a 2014 interview author and psychologist Dan Allender was asked, “Why is it critical for a person to understand his or her own story?” Allender […]
This week I want to highlight a third practice that gives shape to walking well with others as a friend or a mentor. My reflections here are again adapted from our VP3 resource entitled Walking Alongside Others: A Mentoring Guide. Practice #3 – Prayer Prayer in this mentoring context is about cultivating a deep trust in the […]
This week I want to highlight the second of three primary practices that give shape to walking well with others as a friend or a mentor. Last week I addressed the practice of listening, this week question-asking, and next week prayerfulness. My reflections here are again adapted from our VP3 resource entitled Walking Alongside Others: A […]
There are three primary practices that give shape to walking well with others as a friend or a mentor: listening, question-asking, and prayer. Over the next couple blog entries, I will briefly unpack each of these practices. My reflections here are adapted from our VP3 resource entitled, Walking Alongside Others: A Mentoring Guide. I highly recommend […]
Over the past couple years we have chosen a poem or a prayer to center us as we look ahead expectantly to our work together in the upcoming year. For 2018 it is the prayerful words of Emily Freeman from her book Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World that will guide and support and challenge […]
Throughout our VP3 study Growing Up: A Lifelong Journey we invite a group into the practice of moving from Reflection to Conversation to Prayer. Each of the seven conversations include a prayer. The first and last conversation conclude with the poet Luci Shaw’s prayer. For those of you who may be gripping too tightly onto your own […]
Earlier in the month I shared a few of my notes from a recent presentation to a group of pastors and lay leaders from the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. Here is the recording of that 8-9 minute presentation. I was grateful to get the opportunity to share some of the deep concerns that […]
It is a peculiar time in the history of the Church. If one is a student of church history then one knows that it is always “a peculiar time in the history of the church”; this just happens to be our particular time with our unique challenges and our opportunities. There is much we could […]
Over the events of the past week I have had the occasion to share this story twice. We tell the story in the first month of VantagePoint3’s A Way of Life process. It is such a beautiful invitation to live our way into “the grammar of grace” and, thereby, to discover the God and Father […]