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…
Tag: judgment
Following Well or Eventually
There is one social competency more difficult than leadership. That is the ability to follow well. It takes deep intellectual and emotional preparation and skills to follow well. A friend told me one time that if a person thinks they…
Diversity in Moral Leadership
Not all leaders look the same. Some are quiet. Some are loud. Some plug away at their tasks and draw interested and committed followers by their steadiness. Others use charisma to move crowds to action, using a splash of personality…
Judges, Kings and A Better Leadership Plan
1 Samuel 8 tells us when the Israelite’s asked for a good king it displeased Samuel and God. God’s advised Samuel how to respond: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have…
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,…
Him who Justifies the Ungodly
Would you work for a boss who rewarded lazy employees? Would you follow a leader who paid people more after they stole from the company? Would you admire a leader who let people talk bad about him, abuse him, walk…
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…
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…
Beastly Powers, Delusions and Ethics
For the several posts I have been using Kuronen, T. and Huhtinen, A. (2016). Un-willing is un-leading: Leadership as beastly desire. Leadership and the Humanities, 4(2), 92-107. I have used their work to explain the difference between good (lamb) and…
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…
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…
Judgment’s Cure for Judgmentalism
Somewhere in my teens I developed a deep judgmentalism. I can’t blame my family. My parents gave us lots of freedom, were very non-judgmental and their positions as a teacher and a nurse, gave them skills of nurturing. I can’t…
Prophets and Politics
If you live in the United States it is hard to avoid the vitriolic moral wars that characterize this year’s U.S. Presidential race. The police shootings of black men and the shooting of police has fueled an added moral fear…
Judgment: Event, Experience & Person
Our pastor, Dwight Nelson, gave a wonderful sermon yesterday, January 30, 2016. It was on the Judge of the Judgment. For those who have heard him before, it should be no surprise that it was uplifting, biblical and well-delivered. All…
Judgment or Hiding
A lot of people fear divine judgment. It is because they have a distorted view of God and what He can do on the way to and through judgment by his work of redemption. There is no option to avoiding…
Does God Yell? Listening
Yesterday, I heard a prompt from the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t on a major issue but it was wise advice that if received and heeded my day would have gone better. By the end of the day, I wished the…
Jude, Judgment and Tough Words
I like to read and memorize catchy sayings, especially well-woven punchy advice. “Words, like sunbeams, when condensed, burn deeper” continues to help me control my often long-winded responses. “A stitch in time saves nine” reminds me to take care of…
Jeremiah 4: Grace in Judgment
My first three posts on Jeremiah’s “Adventist” ethic reviewed the role of prophets as moral irritations (post 1) against the status quo. Prophets are holy and morally sober in the presence of widespread moral confusion and intoxication. Such a stand…
Jeremiah Ethics 3: Can Adventists Run with Horses?
I run 5k races and once I ran a 10k with my daughters (only because there was no 5k event). I don’t run long races. I can’t handle it. As such, God’s question to Jeremiah hits a sensitive spot: “So,…
Jeremiah Ethics 1: Moral Irritation
Living moral truth often means going against the status quo. It means “standing up for the right though the heavens fall” (White, 1903, Education, p. 57). It is evident when a person seeks sexual purity or promotes heterosexual marriage when…
More Moral Leadership in Our World
Most of us need more exercise. Most of us want more money. We all could use a little more love. But the greatest need and want is for moral leadership. I have been on a twenty year journey of using…
Acts 15
In part one, Stir, Stew, Chill and Serve, I detailed how the Desmond Ford crises of the 1980s rocked and split my small SDA church. This experience made me a champion for unity. I am more eager to search for…
Stir, Stew, Chill & Serve
Adventist Problems in the 1980s: Part 1 It was the simplest directions for cooking a meal. I figured even I, as a pre-teen, could prepare it. “Why wait for my mom when I had a kitchen and a recipe and…
Anger, Protests, and Riots
It is November 25, 2014 (I updated this November 26, 2014. Updates in parentheses) In the middle of a three part series on anger, it seems appropriate to take a moment to discuss the recent demonstrations and riots in Ferguson,…
Neither
“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly…
Easter and Judgment
One day, while driving, I was admiring a long stretch of a mid-West highway. As I cruise down the road, (near the speed limit) a deep thankfulness came over me realizing how nice it was to have such large and long roads,…
Judgment or Intoxication: Part 1—Sobering Grace
Legalism and licentiousness are the most common ditches that Christians face in their walk with Jesus. These two concepts test the ability to stay steadfast in the faith. I have experienced both ditches with a fair share of legalism. This…