In about 3 weeks I’m going on a 3 month sabbatical. This is my 2nd sabbatical as lead pastor of our church. I don’t know if I can measure the benefits to our family taking sabbaticals that are “scheduled” rather than crisis/emergency sabbaticals. Just a few thoughts: From what I can tell, weariness and burnout with spiritual leaders often times lead to limited capacities to express love, be empathetic, show self control, resist temptation and self-destructive behavior.

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A quick thread on the future of church growth in America:

10-15 years ago, if your neighbor knew you were a Christian, they may not agree or even like your beliefs but they at least assumed you to be “more moral” than them because of your beliefs. 2/

Now there’s been a shift (at least in many of our contexts): if your neighbor knows you are a Christian, it may be they actually assume you are less moral and bigoted because of your beliefs (specifically on issues related to sexuality and gender).

Gardner Taylor on preaching:

(1) Manuscripted but unrehearsed sermons lead to stiff preaching that’s overly-connected to material but disconnected from congregation. (2) Purely spontaneous preaching leads to scattered/shallow sermons that’s overly connected to congregation but disconnected from material.

On the Enneagram and Demons:

(1) Many of the folks recently criticizing the Enneagram and associating it with demonic forces I highly admire. I don’t fault them for trying to discern and their concerns broadly. (2) I will say, the Youtube/podcast sources are not new to Christian leaders who use the Enneagram for spiritual formation. Those sources are, to be honest, not very trustworthy and have been debunked many times over by more competent leaders.

Short story: I was at a 70th birthday party of a friend of mine. This man is happy and generous towards others. But his story is full of failures. There were points of his life where he was forced to make significant vocational shifts and start over. 1/ But here he was, with a room full of friends and many who had actually been significantly impacted by him—including me. He had become a mentor, spiritual director, counselor, and leader of many. But he had so many years in his 30/40/50’s where he had become invisible 2/

A short thread against cynicism:

“The cynic is like someone who, traveling by boat, stops in the middle of the ocean and after a while starts to believe the whole world is water. Realistic but not realistic enough.”

—Jordan Castro Cynicism is so attractive. It seems so smart and intelligent and able to see through everything. It feels safe to be on the side that thinks everyone else is either an idiot or a monster.

It’s just not a Christian option.

A short thread on a spiritual truth that I think might change the way you think about prayer: Union with Christ is the place of prayer not the goal of it. You are praying out of the fullness of Christ, not attempting to reach it.

As a slow reader, the habit that I’ve had for 15 years that’s allowed me to read between 225-275 pages a week is my 15-15-15 rule.

I read for 15 minutes:
Morning
Noon
Afternoon

That’s 45 minutes, which depending on the book, I can read about 30-35 pages

1/5 I generally fall asleep reading, which is about 15-30 minutes, which usually adds another 10-20 pages or so. Bonus.

Some books are slower and some books are quicker.

There are often days when I spend a lot more time reading, but I always keep this structure for each day.

2/5

Can I put forward a proposal?

The things we are calling “deconstruction” might actually be what Richard Lovelace called “dis-enculturation.”

What he meant was removing the cultural idolatry (conservative or progressive) from your faith. This process, of course, is destabilizing and provokes all kinds of suspicion against others (hence all the passive aggressive attacks on Twitter), but it leads to a kind of faith that perseveres and doesn’t bow to the idols of our culture (right or left) in the end.

1/ You will never be conservative or progressive enough to satisfy the crowds. Both sides have moving goal posts and cultural idols to satisfy. You will always need to be listening, repenting, reforming. Following Christ will always be costly. 2/ Some times that cost demands repentance of previous actions and alignments, being exposed of loving power more than Jesus and his people. Sometimes it means resisting the crowds and risk being slandered.

@joe_rigney Hey Joe, I understand how frustrating it is to be misread. It seems (1) people are primarily responding to White who is using similar language in order to justify his (what some would recognize) loveless online behavior and (2) when I read you article and others who >>> @joe_rigney warn of the dark side of the empathy, it seems like the behavior you are warning actually isn’t empathy but some sort of vice of self-preservation. It’s not empathy or compassion but some trying to control what we can not.

1/ I remember in seminary listening to a speaker respond to someone accusing him of not being loving as a spiritual leader.

His response was that speaking truth is the most loving thing you can do for someone who believes lies. 2/ The room applauded and I probably applauded too. But I think this is a witness to where conservative evangelicals have lost wisdom.

We have somehow internalized the idea that lovelessness is fine as long as truth is spoken (or something that I agree with).

1/It might be important for white evangelicals to, instead of trying to show how we're not guilty of trumpism, we ought to be asking why trumpism was able to exist & flourish in systems/institutions/denoms/churches/cultures that we have participated in & helped lead. 2/ In other words, if leaders and shepherds must give an account to Christ for who we lead (as Hebrew 13 says we will), then while we might not have spread conspiracy theories, attended rallies, or encouraged others to vote for him, why have so many under our leadership?

1/ So it’s been probably a month since I finished @kkdumez’s Jesus and John Wayne.

I think we all should read it. She does a really good job of showing how much nationalism, racism, and sexism is in the cultural formula. There are some parts that made me so sad and others angry 2/ I don’t think evangelicals should be afraid of this book. Many seem to have written it off as just a progressive take down with a clever title.

It’s not that. While she is very critical of conservatives, by the end of the book it felt like I was reading a good faith critic.

1/ A thread nobody cares about but . . .

I live in a part of Manhattan, on the top of the Upper West Side, on an avenue called West End Ave.

It's a beautiful long drive all the way down to Midtown. I was looking at old photos (here's one below by @joelmeyerowitz, 1968) 2/ What's remarkable in looking at these old photos how much West End hasn't changed in all these years. So much of the city is different (especially in the Upper West Side). But West End Ave is a stretch of about 50 blocks that feels almost unchanged and untouched.

Below is a short thread on Evangelicals and the spiritual discipline of detachment. A proposal: 1/ I wonder if Matthew 8 offers some potentials for evangelicals and healing from cultural idolatry.

Jesus demands at least some level of "detachment" to follow him:

"the Son of Man has no where to lay his head"
"let the dead bury the dead"

1/ One big lesson I've learned in the past 10-15 years is that I'm most spiritually vibrant when I feel at home in my theological tradition and travel widely in my reading. 2/ I am within an orthodox, historical Protestant, Reformed tradition. I feel at home here. I share my theological convictions and beliefs here.

But I often times feel a commonality with the "sensibilities" of other writers from other traditions. For example:

Quick reflection on Peter's reconciliation with Jesus in John 21, where Jesus asks Do you love me a 3rd time and Peter responds, "Lord you know everything; you know that I love you.”

He couldn't appeal to his own energy & passion: "When everyone leaves, I will die with you!" 1/ It's important to let Peter give witness to the spiritual bankruptcy of being carried by the power of your convictions, eagerness, and zeal.

At some point, after failure, humiliations, experiencing limitations, weariness, those things won't sustain you. 2/

Here's the honest truth: Good pastors put themselves in the way of potential criticism and regularly within the realm and reach of other people's pain.

It should not then surprise you, pastor, that you may experience depression even though you've never experienced it before. Carrying the consistent emotional weight of the various pains, fears, criticisms, suffering, and transitions of a congregation (big or small) is a challenging vocation. What it can do to your inner life can/will surprise you.