Steve's Stuff

Tim Keller, who is a man of broad insight and wisdom, here reflects on why it’s so hard for us to see our greatest character flaws—and also what we can do to know ourselves better. This is vitally important to leaders and lifelong learners.

Charles Swindoll is a fine preacher, and in this sermon takes on a very relevant topic as I talk to pastors these days. How do you live life where scrutiny and criticism are abundant?

Bob Roberts is a pastor with a truly global perspective and reach.  He has friends worldwide, and I appreciate the ways in which he supports the work of Christ in some of the most difficult places.  Here he makes some observations as to what he is seeing on the global scene.

Here’s Ed Stetzer, whom I greatly admire, talking about a subject which doesn’t get nearly enough attention even—or especially—among musicians and worship leaders.  As a consequence, most worship services really don’t make sense.  Rather they come across as an impressionistic mosaic.

This is a good reminder!  When it comes to understanding the missional nature of the church, there is a seemingly constant “drift”. Ed Stetzer brings us back to the basics with some solid definitions.

This is a great example of really good storytelling.  Al Andrews approaches the question “What do we do when tragedy strikes and takes away the very thing that seems so important to our lives?” by telling the story of Leon Fleisher, who had the promise of being one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, and then lost the use of his right hand. … But don’t let me spoil the story for you, or tell you how Al Andrews ultimately answers the question. [And take time to watch the embedded video!]

Now here’s an interesting post for those who are fascinated by God’s world and the people in it.

Dallas Willard, beloved man and author of numerous books including Divine Conspiracy (which was my own “book of the decade” in the late 1990’s) passed into eternity today.  See http://www.dwillard.org/biography/default.asp for a short biography.  I have included interviews with Dallas done at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church elsewhere in Steve’s Stuff.

The Urbana Student Mission Conference, which is sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and has been held approximately every three years since 1946, is here reviewed. “Urbana 2012 will no doubt be remembered for many things—from the multi-cultural worship in the plenaries, to the social-entrepreneurial “launch lab”, to the unprecedented commitment of the justice-generation.”  This was my 10th Urbana, and while Urbana is specifically designed for college students and young grads, it continues to be one of my most challenging and helpful conference experiences. 

Adam Walker Cleaveland is a young pastor who has been involved in the emergent church conversation for a number of years. Here he engages in the question about worship styles and the conversation in most “traditional” churches these days about whether they should be offering “alternative” worship experiences. 

Another great blog about the nature of the church from Bob Henderson, who as a retired pastor has been observing the church for decades.  He sees the purpose of the church from the beginning as “the agent of God to get the gospel of the Kingdom to every kindred and trib and ethnic entity in the world.”

This isn’t a new phenomenon, but it is a good reminder.