Articles for tag: Jim Tune

February 1, 2017

Christian Standard

Insider or Outsider?

By Jim Tune In the book How Jesus Saves the World From Us: 12 Antidotes to Toxic Christianity, Morgan Guyton includes a provocative chapter with the title, “Insiders, Not Outsiders: How We Take Sides in Conflict.” In it he refers to something known as the Valladolid debate. I had not heard of it. It seems that in the decades following Christopher Columbus”s discovery of the Americas, the conquistadors and invading Spanish colonizers had been ruthless in their domination of the native peoples, enslaving, displacing, and slaughtering tens of thousands. Troubling reports made their way back to King Charles V, who called

January 18, 2017

Christian Standard

Habits””Better Than Resolutions

By Jim Tune We”re not far into the new year, but our resolutions have already started to fade into the background. “I”m opening a gym called Resolutions,” someone quipped. “It will have exercise equipment for the first two weeks and then it will turn into a bar for the rest of the year.” We start out well, but our best intentions don”t survive the realities of life. Resolutions aren”t bad; they”re just not enough. According to James Clear, a writer on behavioral change, we should forget goals and embrace systems. “Goals are good for planning your progress and systems are

January 11, 2017

Christian Standard

Principled Pluralism

By Jim Tune When we all assumed Christianity held a special place in our society, the solution to differing views was simpler: work harder at bringing the Christian faith into the public square. We all assumed the Christian worldview was right, and that it should shape every part of culture. Things have changed. As acceptance of Christianity has diminished, we find ourselves living in a pluralistic culture. As I”ve said before, we”re no longer the home team. It”s now assumed the Christian worldview has nothing to offer culture. People value tolerance. Tolerance sounds good. The Oxford English Dictionary defines tolerance

January 4, 2017

Christian Standard

True Grit

By Jim Tune Much has been written about the psychology of success. Is it talent that enables success? The right connections? A positive mental attitude? In the book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth argues that most success stories come down to one vital element: endurance. Toughing it out. Grit. Talent, Duckworth claims, is overrated: “We inadvertently send the message that these other factors””including grit””don”t matter as much as they really do.” Duckworth writes: To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an

December 28, 2016

Christian Standard

Christmas Communicates

By Jim Tune “What we”ve got here is failure to communicate,” said the prison warden in the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke. The line has endured because communication is so tough. Marketers spend millions of dollars to communicate. Marriages have broken down due to a lack of communication. In some ways, communication is everything. The ultimate communication gap, though, is between God and us. Left to ourselves, we”d never be able to figure out what God is like. We would know that he exists, but what is he really like? Is he angry and harsh? Is he loving? Does he

December 21, 2016

Christian Standard

The Colors of Christmas

By Jim Tune Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:34, 35). A popular Roman Catholic devotion holds that Mary suffered seven sorrows: Simeon”s prophecy that her heart would be pierced, her flight to Egypt that Jesus might escape the infanticide, the anxious days in Jerusalem when she thought she had lost Jesus,

December 14, 2016

Christian Standard

God Understands

By Jim Tune A friend of mine has a daughter who struggles with an eating disorder. His friends are sympathetic, but found it hard to understand. One day he attended a support group for fathers of children with eating disorders. I”m not alone anymore, he thought. These people know what I”m going through. They didn”t have to say a word. He felt understood and validated. If you”ve ever gone through a hard time””and I know you have””then you know how helpful it is to find others who have been through the same thing. God, of course, is not like us.

December 7, 2016

Christian Standard

Incarnation

By Jim Tune “”˜The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “˜God with us”)” (Matthew 1:23). We build our walls and we call it peace. In Northern Ireland, miles and miles of “peace walls” snake through Belfast and some other cities to separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. The first walls were built in 1969 during the outbreak of “the Troubles.” Even since the Good Friday peace agreement was finally reached in 1998, many miles of new walls have been built. Forty-eight peace walls exist in Northern Ireland today. They divide

November 30, 2016

Christian Standard

New Every Morning

By Jim Tune “Morning has broken, like the first morning . . .” “”words by Eleanor Farjeon, popularized in song by Cat Stevens. Whatever time of day you may be reading this, a new morning is on its way. There is magic in this daily re-creation of ourselves. Hope, opportunity, light, a blank page. I love mornings. That doesn”t mean I am a morning person. Winter mornings in Canada do not begin with light. It”s still dark when I get up. Still, there”s something about a new day dawning. In the monastic era, the hours of the morning carried the

November 23, 2016

Christian Standard

Days of Beauty

By Jim Tune A few of my friends have been participating in a project called “Days of Gratitude.” In an effort to be mindful of their blessings, each day they record, usually on social media, something for which they are grateful. It”s a useful exercise, and some have said the daily habit is having a positive effect on their disposition. On Canadian Thanksgiving (yes, Canadians have their own annual holiday on the second Monday of October), I decided to do something similar. My journey was to recognize and appreciate something beautiful every day for 30 days. I confess that this

November 16, 2016

Christian Standard

You Are What You Want

By Jim Tune Jesus twice asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” It seems an odd question. The first time Jesus asks it, he”s talking to disciples James and John. Their answer isn”t good. They want prominent places in God”s kingdom. “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory,” they say (Mark 10:37*). Jesus knows they still don”t get it. I sigh, because I know I”m infected with the same desire sometimes. Who among us isn”t tempted by prominence and glory? A short time later, Jesus asks this

November 9, 2016

Christian Standard

Do It Again

By Jim Tune The hardest part of life, one preacher said, is that it”s so daily. Every day the bed needs to be made. Breakfast needs to be cooked. Dishes, dusting, work, and sleep demand our attention every single day. The same with ministry. Many of our churches need hundreds of volunteers to operate every week. The numbers vary depending on the size of the church, but every church needs people to show up and do their job. There”s not much glory in showing up faithfully, but without it we”re sunk. We get tired, though. The thousandth time a husband

November 2, 2016

Christian Standard

Evangelical Outrage

By Jim Tune There seems to be a lot of anger in our culture. People are seething about something . . . or everything! The economy, politics, the culture war””the list goes on. The “rant” has become a contemporary art form. And the church seems to have followed right along. We”re angry too. We”re mad at liberals, Democrats, Muslims, Hollywood, and homosexuals. New York Times op-ed writer Tim Kreider calls this modern epidemic “outrage porn”: So many letters to the editors and comments on the Internet have this . . . tone of thrilled vindication: these are people who have

October 26, 2016

Christian Standard

Vine-Ripened Disciples

By Jim Tune When I was a boy, my dad and I grew a vegetable garden together every summer. Our tomatoes were amazing. Grown in nutrient-rich soil, staked, and ripened to deep-red, sunshine-infused perfection, it was love at first bite! Our tomatoes were never perfectly round or uniform in shape. Sometimes they were so ripe they would spontaneously split during the 30-yard stroll from garden to kitchen. There”s something about a homegrown, sun-ripened tomato. Bite into one and you can taste the sunshine as the juices burst into your mouth””a delicious surge of flavor tantalizing your taste buds. Years ago

October 19, 2016

Christian Standard

The Power of Belonging

By Jim Tune When William Broyles was drafted into the United States Marine Corps in 1968, his early career as a journalist was put on hold. Some know him for his subsequent screenwriting work on the television series China Beach and films such as Apollo 13, Cast Away, Planet of the Apes, and The Polar Express. But today I”m quoting from his book Brothers in Arms documenting his experiences in Vietnam and the impact of that war on himself and his fellow soldiers. Broyles writes: “A part of me loved war . . . the comradeship our platoon experienced in

October 12, 2016

Christian Standard

On Being Done with Church

By Jim Tune Research reveals that when it comes to identifying with a particular faith, the “nones”””those who affiliate with no religion””have been increasing for decades. Recently we have heard about the rising number of “dones,” people who were actively involved in a local church who have simply dropped out. A growing number of lifelong churchgoers, many of them leaders and ministers, are saying, “That”s it. I”m done!” It”s not that they are avowed atheists. They haven”t rejected God. It”s not that they never gave church a try””quite the opposite. The “dones” have ample firsthand experience with it. They”ve been

October 7, 2016

Christian Standard

Culture, Country, & Christ

Books to shed light on conventional notions of God and country By Jim Tune “Is the United States an exceptional nation? Of course it is. . . . Though not everyone may like the way the United States has used its exceptional status over the course of the last two centuries, it is hard to deny that it has been . . . extraordinary.” So says John Fea in his foreword to John D. Wilsey”s American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion. Personally, I”m inclined to agree. In my research, the authors of the books I surveyed are, for the most part, in agreement

October 5, 2016

Christian Standard

Reconciliation

By Jim Tune “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, English Standard Version). “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18, ESV). ___ A number of widely publicized events have many people concerned about racial tensions in America. Blacks and whites may not agree on underlying causes or potential solutions, but skin color aside, it seems no one is happy about the present state of

September 28, 2016

Christian Standard

Beware of Spiritual Riptides

By Jim Tune Paul (not his real name) had seen pastors attacked. He pledged he would always do what he could to protect his pastor. A few years later, that pastor agreed with a decision to close a program that Paul”s wife led. Paul stepped down from leadership and stewed against the pastor. He began to entertain gossip and went through a spiritually dry period. Years later, he rejoined leadership and was part of the decision to end the pastor”s tenure. He still nurses a grudge today. Paul had good intentions but found himself swept away. He ended up feeling

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