Musings on Missions and Evangelism: Short-Term Missions as Distraction

I wonder if the rise in STMs over the past 20 years is, in some way, connected to our stimulation addiction and desire for the next “spiritual” experience. It is a lot easier to “experience” God and be moved spiritually during a two-week campaign to an exotic place than to commit weekly, for months or years, to serve a hot meal to local homeless people. We might feel righteous when we do door-to-door evangelism in a faraway place (this is one aspect of STMs that I have serious reservations about but that’s for another time), but we don’t “get much” from making weekly visits to the nearby nursing home. We feel blessed to step outside of our circumstances for a few days in order to understand the suffering of others, but what about moving our home from our familiar neighborhoods and incarnating among people unlike ourselves?

When the elders say No

I’ve said it many times but we all need people who can get in our face and say no. The longer a man is in a pastorate the harder that is going to be. The need for us all to realise we are accountable men, to God and to others is absolutely vital.

5 Reasons Some Leaders Finish Poorly

Here are my five observations:

1. They did not trust the very people they developed for succession.
2. They fought over things which were just not that important.
3. Their identities were too connected to their movement.
4. They grew angrier as they grew older.
5. They could not hand over what they helped create.

Real solution to abortion

So let’s raise our voices to end the practice of abortion. But let’s also open our hearts and our homes to start the practice of adoption. Because, as one around that table pointed out, we’ve all been adopted by the one we call Father. And who better to practice adoption than those of us who have already been adopted?

Ending Abortion

The logical response seemingly has to do with supporting pro-life politicians since this has been the approach Christians have taken. However, that really hasn’t worked even when pro-life politicians were the majority power in Congress and held the office of President of the United States (what pro-life legislation did they attempt?).

A Nation of Immigrants

U.S. Immigrant Population Still Growing, While Unauthorized Immigration Slows

Would-be carjackers foiled by mysteries of the stick shift

“They apparently couldn’t start it,” Bean 51, is quoted as saying in a police report. “I had to tell him four different times to push in the clutch, because it’s a standard transmission.”