The second most influential book in my life has been Ellen G. White’s (1827-1915) Desire of Ages and Jerry D. Thomas’ amazing paraphrase of that book, Messiah. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BOTH. Thomas has done a masterful job paraphrasing White’s classic.…
Category: Religious/Spiritual
Duane’s Top Ten Books
I have been reading books for about 50 years. The next few posts review the most influential books in my life. This list has shifted over time as I have added new readings. I will spend more time on my…
Series: Doing a Christian Ethic of Love from a Bible full of Bloodshed.
When I present my services as a Christian ethicist, I immediately feel several insufficiencies. My lack of love meter twitches in my mind as lower than desired: Why even talk about a love ethic, when I am so far from…
Risk: Nothing Ventured-Nothing Gained
A recent post on my favorite blog–Institute for Faith, Work and Economics,– corresponded with my morning devotion. I thought I would share ideas from both. Tim Hoerr’s post on Why Worship Involves Risk shows how it takes initiative and risk…
Following Jesus: What to do with the 10 Commandments?
Andy Stanley is one of my favorite authors, youtube preachers and DVD study creators. He is an amazing communicator. He has lead me to a better experience of God, to love my family and others in a deeper way, and…
Individuality and Mutuality in Christian Leadership
Within our Adventist educational community, one Ellen White often quoted passage is Education p. 17: Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator– individuality, power to think and…
Grace & Truth: What Does God do with Bad Goat Leaders
There are millions of leaders in the world. Not all of them do us good. Last week, one of these leaders was sentenced to up to 175 years for sexually abusing girls. This sentence was based on 7 counts but…
How can you shepherd if you are one of the sheep?
The Lord is My Shepherd, sang David. He sang it well. He knew its truth. All sheep know the truth. We know our fragility (at least we should). We can’t see very far. We get tired easily. We suffer raging…
Moral Development: Plan A and Plan B
God is the source of all good. He creates moral reality because morality emanates from his character. He is love and justice, he is regal and humble, and as such he defines the ideal. But interestingly, that which he is…
Cultivating A Good Protest!!!
1517-2017 The 500 Year Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Have you got excited about the celebrations sweeping through our campuses, nations and world? I have!!! Our local community in Berrien Springs has been alive with amazing conferences. The Seminary took…
Fast Moving Fires: Lessons on Sparks and Flames
This last week I watched from a distance over the horizon of media as my beloved California burned. It was sickening. My wife and I made our first home in Napa. We lived in a little cottage near a grape…
Individuality in Community: The Lesson of Mutuality
“Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator—individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities,…
God’s Telling His Story through Yours and Mine
Dan Allender, in his books and youtube videos and traveling/retreat ministry, helps people discover, write and tell their full stories. His work is fascinating and healing. He encourages people to tap into their life stories to see God’s powerful gospel…
Prophets and Prayer: Believing God Interacts with His World
Our contemporary mindset has a hard time conceptualizing and relating to “prophets” or to the”prophetic” gift. Recently I was reading two individuals who studied Ellen White’s prophetic gift for their dissertations. One used psychological research, specifically psychotherapy, and saw many…
American Beastly Leadership (5 of 5)-The Last in Long Series
This post summarizes the main ideas of a long series of 17 posts on Servant vs Beastly Leadership. This concludes a subseries of 5 on American beastly leadership. Servant leadership I equate with the “Lamb” leadership of Christ. This has…
American Beastly Leadership (4 of 5)-#16 in Series
This series has contrasted servant and beastly leadership. The last 3 posts brought Adventism and America into this contrast. The prognosis of Revelation 13 is that America could abandon its role as servant leader. How? Here, I explore four ways…
American Beastly Leadership (2 of 5)-#14 in Series
In post #13 on “servant” or “beastly” leadership, I used Revelation 10-14 to show the emergence of Adventists and America in prophecy and as agents of servant leadership. The strongest match was made for Adventists. The identifiers were: use of…
American Beastly Leadership (1 of 5)– #13 in Series
The last 12 posts contrasted beastly and servant leadership, using scripture illustrations to show a great war wages for our allegiance. One side pulls individuals and nations toward evil and beastly leadership, characterized by lots of speaking, limited or poor…
Post 12-Review of Servant and Beastly Leadership Series
American and Adventist leadership will be our next focus in this long series contrasting servants and beasts. As a review, the last 11 posts covered: Resisting Beastly Leadership: Flowers in the Darkest Hours contrasted Jesus’ representation of God’s leadership on…
Bethlehem’s Mourning: Herod the “Not-So” Great
Christmas celebrates God’s great love to the world. The gift of Bethlehem’s Morning was a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Jesus, Immanuel. God with Us. The King of the Universe stepped down to save his subjects. Jesus would win his…
Brides–Shining from His Light
We should anticipate that the “spouse” of the Lamb and the “spouse” of the Beast to reflect the approach of each of their spouses. And for the most part, they do. The Bride of the Lamb reflects the light of…
The Etiology of Beastly Power
This is post 9 in a 12-part series contrasting servant and beastly leadership. This post reviews two symptoms common in beastly powers–lying and murdering. These symptoms are outward manifestations of a deeper disease process. We discuss those symptoms and the…
Plan B — God’s Glorious Reinstatement of Humans as Co-Leaders
“They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.” Revelation 14: God created humans with his divine image imprinted and implanted in us. And that was just…
Four Acts of Divine Leadership
God leads. That is my deep belief. He acts on his creation in love. That is my deep experience. God leads in more ways than we will ever fully be aware. Much of our ignorance of his ways to lead…
Daniel: Servants to Beastly Kingdoms
Daniel was sent as a servant-slave to Babylon. Daniel’s nation, Israel, had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces, but the real ruin started centuries earlier when they rejected God as a leader and asked Samuel to find them a king.…
Servant Leadership in Beastly Places
Greenleaf’s 1977 classic Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness reminds us that the most important characteristic about anything—a cell phone, a boss, even a God– is service. Without good service none of them are…
Crucified and Risen Leadership
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Trembling is an overwhelming, almost uncontrollable, “natural” response to deep cold, fear, emotional exhaustion, or…
Resisting Beastly Leadership: Jesus Flowering in Dark Places
Bad leaders have several ways to lead people astray but there may be only one good way to prevent that from happening. One way leaders lead us astray is when they appear “good” or “strong” but lack moral character and…
Church Leadership: In Season or Out
When Presidents come and go, the church needs to be the church. When Parties come and go, the church needs to be the church. When Nations rise or fall, the church needs to be the church. When Good Times lull…
Called and Sprawled into Leadership: Lessons from DeVos Urban Leadership
I experienced the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative this week. This training experience serves 50 urban faith based youth leaders from across the country with leadership development events and coaching. It helps them find sanity, refocus on trusting God, and create…