The story is told of a busy father who wanted to occupy his toddler so the boy wouldn’t distract him. The father tore a world map into several pieces and sent the little boy to his room to put it back together, instructing him not to return until the job was done. Surprised by his […]
Word-plays on “the center” and “centering” have come to my attention often in my new role at the Artios Center for Vibrant Leadership. Books I’ve read that highlight this concept regularly pop back up on my radar screen. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes “Each of us has a center, […]
Reframing the Great Commission.
The phrase “the evening and the morning,” repeated throughout the first chapter of Genesis, underscores life’s daily-ness. In case you haven’t noticed, life is very daily: It happens one day at a time. Each day, part of life’s rhythm of work and rest is therefore to be joyfully and gratefully stewarded as God’s gift to […]
So far, the hymns featured in this series have followed the annual seasons. This installment, therefore, calls for a fall-related hymn. But the theme of this BA issue compels deviation, providing an opportunity to highlight Samuel Stone’s classic “The Church’s One Foundation.” It is one of twelve hymns published by the English clergyman in 1866, […]
Where is history going? Do the details of our lives count as part of that history? Are our individual stories all there is, or is there a big story, a grand metanarrative? We derive from Scripture that there is a big story, that God is writing its chapters, and that it includes even the minutest […]
The first time Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he half-heartedly said, “So you’re the little lady who wrote the book that started the war.” Stowe is famous for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), a heart-wrenching portrayal of the plight of slaves, credited for sparking the Civil War and England’s abolitionist movement.
The word glory is common in Christian circles. When worship leaders invite the congregation to “give God the glory,” they substitute glory for praise. Glory can be a synonym for boast: “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). Theologians use a form of this word […]
