Relationships and Community on Questioning Authority

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The defiance of established authority, religious and secular, social and political, as a world-wide phenomenon may well one day be accounted the outstanding event of the last decade.

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Amy Chua

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A Western upbringing tends to stress questioning authority, which is always asking why, why, why.

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Not everyone instinctively warms to the idea that God is a Father. There are many for whom their own experiences of overbearing, indifferent or abusive fathers make their very guts squirm when they he...

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N. T. Wright

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Many in the church have turned their back on serious study, and have embraced an anti-intellectualism which refuses to learn anything from scholarship at all lest it corrupt their pure faith. It is ti...

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A Question of Motivation

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The Pastor's Workshop

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Proverbs 22:6, Hosea 1:1-4, Matthew 18:1-5, Ephesians 6:4, Psalm 127:3

There’s a story about philosopher John Dewey walking with his young son on a cold, wet, and windy day. The boy, barefoot, was gleefully splashing in a puddle despite the weather. A concerned friend pa...

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Evangelists Are Seen as Salesmen

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Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

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Matthew 5:14-16, John 13:34-35, 1 Peter 2:12, Titus 2:7-8, 2 Corinthians 5:20, Matthew 10:16

In another day and age, God, religion and church enjoyed the general respect of the culture. Not today. Religion is suspect, church is weird, and Christians are hypocrites. Distrust has become the nor...

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The Age of Suspicion

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Thomas H. Troeger

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There are many titles that historians of the future may give our era, but one that they are certain to consider is "The Age of Suspicion." People are suspicious of political authorities beca...

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Abraham Kuyper

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God built into the creation a variety of cultural spheres, such as the family, economics, politics, art, and intellectual inquiry. Each of these spheres has its own proper "business" and nee...

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Permission to Speak Freely

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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1 Thessalonians 5:11, Ephesians 4:15, Proverbs 27:5-6, Colossians 4:6, Proverbs 3:7, Proverbs 25:11, Ezekiel 33:6, Matthew 18:15

If you’ve ever watched a war movie, or a film that takes place in the military, you’re likely to have encountered a specific scene, in which a subordinate will have something to tell a senior officer ...

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Bertrand Russell

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Assumptions

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Luke 10:25-37, Acts 17:11, Romans 12:2, James 1:5, Psalm 119:59-60, Psalm 10:1

In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

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The Nebulous "They"

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The Pastor's Workshop

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Galatians 1:10, Colossians 3:23, Psalm 139:13-14, Proverbs 29:25, Romans 8:31, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, 1 Samuel 16:7, Romans 12:2, John 1:12

George Herbert Mead, an influential early 20th-century sociologist, coined the term “generalized other” to describe the vague group we consider when shaping our actions. How often do we behave a certa...

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The Most Damaging Charge

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Richard J. Mouw

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Leviticus 19:15, Proverbs 18:17, 1 Kings 3:9, Matthew 7:1–5, John 7:24, Psalm 141:5

At a recent gathering of seminary professors, one teacher reported that at his school the most damaging charge one student can lodge against another is that the person is being “judgmental.” He found ...

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The Anatomy of a Crisis: Sermon Illustration Thursday

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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All crises are judgments of history that call into question an existing state of affairs. They sift and sort the character and condition of a nation and its capacity to respond. The deeper the crisis,...

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Samuel Chadwick

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The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He fills the Body, directs its movements, controls its members, inspires its wisdom, supplies it's strength. He guides int...

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Thinking Critically about Power

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Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel

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Luke 6:42, Matthew 6:12

For years Kyle and I [Jamin Goggin] had no trouble looking critically upon others in their quest for power. We bemoaned the rock-star pastors who were in the spotlight, whose churches appeared to be m...

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Power is Present Everywhere

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David Fitch

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Power is present in almost all social situations we find ourselves in. Whether it be the corporation you work at, the village zoning committee, the street crew you work on, the neighborhood, the playg...

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Do You Want to be Judged?

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Ken Sande

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Ken Sande, the author and director of Peacemaker Ministries, puts it this way: “How do you want others to judge you? Do you want them to believe good about you instead of evil? To interpret your a...

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Who Said That?

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Proverbs 29:25, Acts 4:19-20, John 12:42-43, Daniel 3:16-18, Psalm 56:11, Matthew 10:28, Romans 8:31, Hebrews 13:6

During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was inter...

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Author

Mike Fisher

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Sometimes trust takes time. We all love to be in control, but when you start to give some of that up, it's freeing. Start with some of the little things. Give those things up to the Lord.

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Lesslie Newbigin

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A person who wields power cannot see truth; that is the privilege of the powerless.

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Author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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The Kingdom of God

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Matthew 21:22, 1 John 5:14-15, Philippians 4:6, Luke 11:9-10, John 15:7

Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.

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The Discipline of Not Having the Last Word

Author

John Ortberg

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Scripture

Matthew 5:9, Colossians 4:6, Proverbs 17:27, Ecclesiastes 3:7, 1 Peter 3:15, Philippians 2:3

In his book, Soul Keeping, pastor John Ortberg describes his mentorship by Dallas Willard early in his ministry. The following vignette occurred while Willard was teaching a philosphy course at the Un...

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The Politics of Ministry Book Review & Quotes

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Philippians 2:21

Picture this: you are just about a year into your first call as a minister. Everything seems to be going swimmingly. You caught up with a seminary friend over the weekend and you slightly brag about h...

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Finally Discovering Lordship

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Les Goertz

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“A young man came to visit me with a question on his mind. He asked, “I prayed to receive Jesus as my Savior, but why has nothing really changed in my life?” I asked him, “Who is running your life?” H...

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Power is for Service

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Spiritual Disciplines

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Luke 22:27, Matthew 23:11, Philippians 2:5-7, Galatians 5:13, John 13:14-15, Mark 10:45

The way most of us serve keeps us in control. We choose whom, when, where and how we will serve. We stay in charge. Jesus is calling for something else. He is calling us to be servants. When we make t...

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Elisabeth Elliot Gren

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The current popular notion that judging others is in itself a sin leads to such inappropriate maxims as 'I'm okay and you're okay.' It encourages a conspiracy of moral indifference whi...

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A Seed of Wanting to Be the Boss

Author

Walter Brueggemann

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Scripture

Mark 10:42-45

People in the world naturally want to boss others. Imagine a boy beginning work with a firm. He has a lowly place and is ordered around by everyone. Do this! Do that! Every dirty job is his. He is the...

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When Evil Is Dethroned

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Philip Yancey

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Sometimes evil can feel so strong, so powerful, that its damage seems permanent and the final word on the subject. In this short excerpt from Philip Yancey, we see a reversal, perhaps a foretaste of w...

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Author

Thomas Merton

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Scripture

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 , Isaiah 6:8, Jonah 1:1-3 & 3:1-3 , Matthew 16:24-26 , Philippians 3:7-14, Psalm 139:13-16

If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living...

relationships and community on Questioning Authority

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