Linkathon!

pstrmike says:

Good article by DeGroat. It past time someone wrote about this and will probably get his book on kindle. These are the root issues that this blog has identified for as long as I have been a participant here. I’m sure the book has the source, so I will leave you with the quote from Henri Nouwen that was at the beginning of the article. Nouwen understood the antithetical nature to gospel that power and control—some of which is disguised as “leadership”– that is rampant in all the different tribes of the church.

“The long painful history of the Church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led. Those who resisted this temptation to the end and thereby give us hope are the true saints. One thing is clear to me: the temptation of power is greatest when intimacy is a threat. Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love.”

The isolation brought on by the pandemic was a respite for me from much of that environment. Now that I am going back and having some exposure again, I have a heightened sense that the streams that I am revisiting and dipping my feet into are not pure. As Antony said, “your cell will teach you everything.”

Em says:

I don’t know that “everything” is a message from God, but i do know that nothing happens that God does not allow today

Burning bushes? Can’t say amen – so much of life we must navigate, answering to God for OUR behavior always, but not necessarily sure of His direction…

CM says:

Duane,

Ever read the Ken Follett novel “The Pillars of the Earth”? I have read it, and it was long before Oprah and her book club discovered it

Babylon's Dread says:

If I knew decisively I would have spoken louder and more quickly. It has been dogging my mind since the beginning. We’ve become intimidated against saying anything about God’s present active engagement in history. That seems to me to deny both the apostles and the prophets of the sacred text. It also seems to deny the active voice of God in the earth. We have become kind of Christian Deists. I am working on something just now and allowed my diversion to come here.

I will come back and attempt an answer. It was compelling me last week, more anon.