Injustice

Did you see the movie Slumdog Millionaire? Many people did. The movie received eight Oscars and grossed over $326 million. You would think that everyone involved in this project is doing pretty well financially.

It is all of over the news this morning that one of the child stars of the movie lost his home today. Not his big home in Hollywood. His shanty in the slums.

You mean to tell me that a child who starred in a movie that grossed hundreds of millions of dollars did not receive enough money to help his family buy a home. It is unbelievable that this young boy was still living in the slums.

This is a terrible picture of the exploitation and injustice that is all to common in our world.

Hollywood gets rich on the backs of poor people and doesn't even care enough to help them out of poverty. This sounds much like the Walton family and what they have done through their Walmart empire.

God help us to love our neighbor.

What are your reactions to the story about this young boy?

Heeding your inner life

"[We must] enter ourselves first of all into the center of our existence and become familiar with the complexities of our inner lives. As soon as we feel home in our own house, discover the dark corners as well as the light spots, the closed doors as well as the drafty rooms, our confusion will evaporate, our anxiety will diminish, and we will become capable of creative work. The key word here is articulation. Those who can articulate the movements of their inner life, who can give names to their varied experiences, need no longer be victims of themselves, but are able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering. They are able to create space for Him whose heart is greater than theirs, whose eyes see more than theirs, and whose hands can heal more than theirs. This articulation, I believe,is the basis for spiritual leadership of the future, because only they who are able to articulate their own experiences can offer themselves to others as a source of clarification."

Henri Nouwen - The Wounded Healer

What do you think of this quote? Is knowing yourself well a key to effective spiritual leadership?

An ever changing world

Some things that are worth considering as we seek to reach our world for Christ.

What does this mean for how the church is to be a city on a hill?

The Next Evangelicalism

I dare you to read this book! It attacks many sacred cows and challenges us to rethink what is going on in the church in America.

I am not yet finished with Soong-Chan Rah's book "The Next Evangelicalism", but to this point it has been engaging, convicting, enlightening, confusing, and many other things. This book is prophetic and bold. It is a needed voice to the evangelical world which often ignores some of its most powerful and needed voices.

Rah confronts the false gods of materialism and consumersism, racism, white privilege and the pride that goes with it, and offers a starting point to understanding a more wholistic theology.

The Next Evangelicalism is a must read for anyone serious about growing God's kingdom effectively in the years to come. So get it. Read it. Talk about it. Learn from it.

PURSUE PRO-AM

I am excited to be preparing the PURSUE PRO-AM! This event will provide networking for our students, expansion of awareness about Pursue, and fundraising for our scholarships.
If you golf or have friends who golf, help me get the word out about the first annual PURSUE PRO-AM. It is a great opportunity to come and enjoy yourself while supportuing a great cause.

The power of words

Vice President Joe Biden stated yesterday on the Today show "I would tell members of my family - and I have - I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway. So from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation.

"If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing. If you're in a closed aircraft or a closed container, a closed car, a closed classroom, it's a different thing."

If the VP of the country is saying that he would tell his family not to go one a plane, a subway, a car, then don't you think that he believes that no one in the country should be doing that? Wasn't Biden essentially suggesting that it would be best if all planes, trains, and automobiles were shut down until furthur notice.

He is either right or he is so clueless to the importance of his own words. He is contradicting the president, the national health organizations, and everyone else. But there is little talk in the media of his careless words.

I find it suprising that he is not being raked over the coals for his careless use of words. Maybe it is because the media doesn't like to make this administration look bad.

What do you think about the importance of words? Do you think that Biden was being reckless to make such a statement? Why is noone listening to him?