Series: Blogs

October 21, 2015

Christian Standard

Making the Grade

By Jim Tune Mark Twain spoke in 1900 on the value of an education. “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail,” he said. “What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It”s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won”t fatten the dog.” We need our schools in this movement of ours, perhaps more than ever. As president of the 2015 International Conference on Mission in Richmond, Virginia, October 29″”November 1, I”ve had the unique privilege of personally visiting nine of our Bible colleges and Christian universities. As I

October 20, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Entrepreneurship ≠ Leadership

By Mark A. Taylor Big ideas. Bold initiatives. Novel thoughts and new approaches. Replacement strategies and structures and processes to eliminate the out-of-date. Change. Growth. These are the fruits produced by all good leaders, right? Maybe. It”s certainly true we hear all of these described in leadership seminars and discussed among many ministers and their advisers. But lately it has dawned on me that what some see as leadership is really entrepreneurship. And they are not the same. The entrepreneur is, at least at first, a lone ranger. He (or she) pushes forward compelled by a new idea or a

October 14, 2015

Christian Standard

Sister Ships

By Jim Tune In Tomas Tranströmer”s poem “The Blue House,” the narrator is a man standing in the woods near his house. When he looks at his house from this vantage point, he observes that it”s as if he”d just died and he now “saw the house from a new angle.” It”s a haunting image””that just-dead man among the trees””and it”s an instructive one too. Sometimes something has to die before we can see from a new angle. This is the posture Tranströmer”s narrator assumes, at once able to see his life for what it”s been while also acknowledging the

October 13, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Calculating the Right Answer

By Mark A. Taylor “You don”t own your possessions. Your possessions own you.” Not true for you, you say? Well, try this experiment. Think about your time: For one month keep a running diary of every minute you spend fueling your car, washing your car, or taking your car to the garage. Then add time spent cleaning the house, performing maintenance at the house, decorating, replacing broken appliances, or doing yard work To this log, add any time you”ve spent purchasing, repairing, or maintaining other favorite possessions: electronics, computers, smartphones, and the like. And then add time spent shopping for

October 6, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

About Face

By Mark A. Taylor Yesterday we posted the first in a series of posts this month about integrity. We believe each one will challenge readers to grow deeper, to actually become in greater measure what they seem to be and what they say they want to be. But one aspect needs fuller discussion. None of our other posts specifically addresses how our prayer lives are a measure of our integrity. Yesterday’s post by Randy Gariss touches the issue with his list of four disciplines to achieve integrity. Correctly, he begins with worship, and certainly he includes prayer as a part of that. We posted Gariss”s essay first

September 30, 2015

Christian Standard

Pebbles, Rocks, and Water

By Jim Tune Most readers will be familiar with Stephen Covey”s prioritizing system. He urges us to differentiate the truly important from the merely urgent; the essential thing from the merely marginal. Frequently referred to as the “big rocks” illustration, Covey produces a bucket (which symbolizes our life), a few big rocks (which symbolize our most essential priorities), and a bunch of small pebbles (which symbolize the tasks that seem urgent, but ultimately aren”t essential). Covey pours the pebbles into the bucket, and then invites a seminar participant to try to add all of the big rocks. This proves impossible,

September 29, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Annual Panic

By Mark A. Taylor Every August and September, I was gripped by panic. As part-time education minister with a smaller church (now it”s mega), I was responsible to recruit Sunday school workers for every age level and to staff a fully graded program on Wednesday nights. When kids choirs took a break on Sunday evenings (we had Sunday-night church back in those days), my job was to create and find workers for kids” classes then too. In a church of a few hundred, that was a lot of volunteers, and we never seemed to have quite enough. We encouraged people

September 23, 2015

Christian Standard

Taming the Sermon

By Jim Tune When it comes to discussions about the teachings of Jesus, especially his “hard” teachings, I”ve grown tired of the tendency to tame any revolutionary teaching that seems just too radical or too naïve or idealistic. The conversation too often goes like this: “I know that”s what Jesus said, but what he really meant was. . . .” For example, when Jesus tells us not to store up riches on earth, we repurpose it to say, “Do not get too attached to the riches that you have, in fact, stored up on earth.” We read the Sermon on

September 16, 2015

Christian Standard

Just Breathe

  By Jim Tune Breathe on me, Breath of God, Until my heart is pure, Until with Thee I will one will, To do and to endure. “”Edwin Hatch, from the hymn “Breathe on Me, Breath of God” Job reaches the limits of his ability to endure. He plunks himself down, ruined, infected, septic. He has lost everything: his children, livestock, livelihood, house, and now his health. He is abandoned on the ash heap, scraping his wounds with the sharp-edged fragments of clay pots. Job is dying: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In the valley of the shadow of death, but

September 15, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Volunteers: They”re Vital!

By Mark A. Taylor Not long after I left ministry in the local church to come to the nine-to-five office environment at Standard Publishing, I had an epiphany. I had taken for granted the volunteers who had helped me at the church. When I needed them to come to a meeting, they came. When I asked them to teach a class, they taught. When I recruited them to give up time to keep my latest notion from failing, they were there. Meanwhile, I counted everything I did for the church as part of the job they were paying me for.

September 9, 2015

Christian Standard

Paralysis, Condescension, or Love?

By Jim Tune How do you view the world? Too often I think our churches tend to see the world only as a mess””caught up in mindless trivialization, bereft of moral values, anti-church, and anti-Christian. Indeed, it is common today for many churches to see the world as the enemy. Unfortunately, rather than feeling heartbroken about it, we feel smug and righteous as we gleefully witness its downfall. Godlessness is its own punishment! The world is only getting what it deserves! That”s what it gets for not listening to us! In this, our attitude is the antithesis of Jesus” attitude

September 8, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Parenting Predictable, Not Perfect

By Mark A. Taylor Which of these videos reminds you of an awkward moment at your house? Did you ever lose a hamster? Did you ever make yourself sick making your kids happy? Did parenting ever take you out of your comfort zone? Well, take heart. “You don”t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent.” It”s a message as encouraging for biological parents as it is for those who would adopt. And it”s exactly what Jack Holland told us in our August 20 episode of Beyond the Standard. In fact, he says professional literature on successful families uses

September 2, 2015

Christian Standard

Emotional Stinginess

By Jim Tune The joke was funny. My sermon was good. But two rows of people, mostly from the same family, were unmoved. They were, in their own minds, punishing me for an unpopular decision. The method of punishment? Withholding encouragement. Withholding praise. Withholding kindness. Arms folded across their chests, their eyes betrayed what they were thinking: You will receive no love from us this day. Praise has never been my motivation for preaching. You can”t please everyone anyway. But most preachers can relate to the “deliberate withholding” scene I just described. Thomas Aquinas once submitted that to withhold a

September 1, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Chasing after Integrity

By Mark A. Taylor The October issue of CHRISTIAN STANDARD is devoted to the theme of integrity. As we finish making final corrections before sending it to the printer this week, I know it contains some of the best material we”ve ever published. Surely the issue will prompt soul-searching in every reader. In a world characterized by concern for image management more than private goodness, even Christians too often fail to walk their talk. But a question has come to me in recent days that we do not consider in those pages. What do we do with integrity failures we

August 26, 2015

Christian Standard

Behind My Back

By Jim Tune I wasn”t intending to eavesdrop. It just sort of happened. I had left the company of two close friends, but realized minutes later I had left a personal item behind. My friends were still talking when I returned, and they were talking about me. I wasn”t trying to eavesdrop, but I couldn”t keep from listening as they discussed a very personal decision I had shared with them earlier. There was nothing mean-spirited in anything they said. I made my presence known almost immediately. I had heard enough to feel a flash of betrayal and embarrassment. When I

August 25, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Recognizing the Body

By Mark A. Taylor I first prepared the following as a Communion meditation for the church where I worship. It occurs to me that it considers a biblical challenge that Christians everywhere do well to remember. We don”t read far in Paul”s first letter to the Corinthians till we see this was a church with problems. “I appeal to you brothers,” he wrote, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and

August 19, 2015

Christian Standard

Contact

  By Jim Tune Gordon Allport was an American psychologist and early groups theorist with a knack for broadly conceptualizing important behavioral topics including religion and prejudice. Allport is said to have used the following conversation to show how group segregation leads to bad attitudes toward the other group. “See that man over there?” “Yes.” “Well, I hate him.” “But you don”t even know him.” “That”s why I hate him.” Allport believed that homogeneity is never harmless. He introduced contact theory as a way of bringing groups together in order to reduce prejudice. The idea is if separation of one

August 18, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Just Say Yes!

By Mark A. Taylor Most of us obey most of the laws most of the time. But how often could we say the law delights us? How often is our obedience grudging (tax time is coming), or forced (radar detectors, anyone?), or incomplete? How often do we think about the law, any law, with gratitude and joy? The news today is full of protests against bad law-keeping and unjust treatment of some citizens. But these exceptions underline the value of the law; without it there would be no recourse against those who violate it. Theft is forbidden, murder is punished,

August 12, 2015

Christian Standard

Armed and Dangerous

By Jim Tune A few years ago, a Seeds of Compassion event in Seattle, Washington, was organized around the visit of the Dalai Lama. One of the highlights was a joint speech by the Dalai Lama and South African bishop Desmond Tutu. Both men have committed their lives to peace and nonviolence. Their humanitarian work has saved lives and made the world a safer place. Both men espouse the value of enemy love. Both are committed to the call to love their enemies just as they would love their friends. They have lived out this commitment in ways most of

August 11, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Shopping for a Church? Check Here!

By Mark A. Taylor Welcome to Choose-a-Church.com, the one-stop shopping source where you can find exactly the church you”re looking for . . . FIRST SECTION: Please tell us a little about yourself. Check every phrase that accurately completes the following sentence: “I”m looking for another church because . . .” “¢ I”m not being fed at my current church (indicate whether you”re referring to sermons or fellowship dinners). “¢ My current church changed something (indicate whether or not the church asked your permission). “¢ I don”t like the way my current church spends money. (If you check this sentence,

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