Jonah
Jeremy and Amy are friends from church. They have three children: the oldest, Jonah, is 5; the youngest is just a few months old. They are dealing with things I don’t think I could have handled when I was in my 20′s: Jonah has cancer and it looks like his leg will have to be [...]
Just for fun…
…I had lunch with one of our Association’s staffers today; no particular agenda, just catching up. One of the things Bill was excited about was the Tulsa Association’s strategy for church planting. Then we started talking about personal experiences with new church starts (I’ve been a part of two new congregations as a lay person). [...]
Interim Code of Ethics
The other day, one commenter wrote “The ethical responsibility of a supply preacher is to preach the word…†While I agree with that statement, I think there may be a few things we could add to a supply/interim’s code of ethics. The first would be: consistency. Let our actions reflect what we preach, even if [...]
Interim Ministry
In yesterday’s post, I wrote about a conversation I had with the man who filled our pulpit Sunday. For those unfamiliar with Southern Baptist churches, a short explanation may be in order. SBC churches are independent, that is, we have no bishop or superintendent overseeing SBC churches. When a congregation is in between pastors, there [...]
Hypocrisy?
My church has been without a pastor for four weeks now. The plan, as I understand it, if to have men fill in – pulpit supply – until the church calls a Transitional Pastor. The guy who preached this morning focused on one main point: Jesus is the head of the church, not committees or [...]
Protective Orders
One of the things counselors, particularly counselors who work with parenting and divorce issues, have to worry about is educating clients about protective orders. Many people – men and women both – have a hard time seeing what they are doing as harassment or stalking (both of which can earn one a protective or restraining [...]
Spring Break: II
Just in time for spring break the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has released this report on binge drinking among college students: Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities The report notes nearly half of full time college students binge drink while one [...]
Long Term Marriages
This article (Filmmakers looking for lasting love in Salt Lake) is an interview with two 28-year-old bachelors who are making a film about the secrets of long term marriages. There are a few quotes that I really like. In the beginning (of the project), says (Jason) Miller, the two bachelors would ask lengthy, convoluted questions [...]
A Nagging Problem
I’m often telling interns and new therapists, “Don’t work if you haven’t been hired.” And, “Don’t work harder than the client is working.” Both statements get at the idea that people don’t change simply because we tell them to; there must be some degree of motivation on the part of the client. Something similar is [...]
Keeping Sex Fun
I was looking for one more article on dating and marriage to quote/link to finish out the week. Specifically, I wanted something from the male perspective. Unfortunately, there is very little out there fitting that description; many articles/blog posts written by and for wives, but few from husbands. Men, it appears, don’t date our wives, [...]
