Articles for tag: Jim Tune

December 23, 2015

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

Peace on Earth?

By Jim Tune In the movie Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a racist, embittered, retired factory worker and Korean War veteran living in a deteriorating Detroit neighborhood dominated by gang violence and Asian immigrants. Walt has little relationship with his grown sons and their self-absorbed suburban families. His two loves are his dog, Daisy, and his cherished 1972 Ford Gran Torino. A family of Hmong immigrants has moved in next door, and as part of a gang initiation, the teenage boy Thao is pressured into trying to steal Walt”s Gran Torino. Walt interrupts the attempted theft, and over

December 16, 2015

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square

Two Sizes Too Small

By Jim Tune There”s been an explosive fascination with all things zombie in pop culture. The AMC series The Walking Dead has enjoyed stunning commercial success, so I wasn”t surprised to see a flood of big-screen zombie productions hitting local theaters. Most of them focus solely on gore and body counts. The 2013 zombie film Warm Bodies was unique for this weird film genre: It”s a zombie love story. I remember watching it on a transatlantic flight in the middle of the night, and I was actually pleasantly surprised. The film”s tagline more or less summarizes the plot: “He”s still

December 9, 2015

Christian Standard

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

By Jim Tune Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: “Earth”s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit around and pluck blackberries.” I need to reflect more often on the awesomeness of God. I want to live with my shoes off, recognizing holy ground moments as God saturates everything with his awesome light. My posture ought to more often be that of a man standing in amazement trying to fathom the glory of Christ. Isaiah 55:9 reminds us, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are

December 2, 2015

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

Christmas: It”s a Heart Thing

By Jim Tune In his excellent book simply titled Preaching, Tim Keller commits an entire chapter to the notion and need for preachers to preach Christ to the heart. “Preaching,” according to Keller, “cannot simply be accurate and sound. It must capture the listeners” interest and imaginations; it must be compelling and penetrate to their hearts. It is possible merely to assert and confront and feel we have been very “˜valiant for truth,” but if you are dry or tedious, people will not repent and believe the right doctrine you present.” Arguing that we should preach “wondrously,” Keller contends that

November 25, 2015

Christian Standard

All You Can Do

By Jim Tune (This column was first posted November 26, 2014.) In Star Wars: Episode V””The Empire Strikes Back, Luke talks to the ever-wise Yoda about the enormity of his mission. Luke finally says, “All right, I”ll give it a try.” Yoda sagely offers his famous advice: “No! Try not. Do . . . or do not. There is no try.” Yoda was wrong. Sometimes there is no do. There is only try. I am frequently discovering that try is enough. What”s more, there are many things not worth trying or doing! Not everything is up to us. We are

November 21, 2015

Christian Standard

Conferences & Gatherings Organizations & Events

ICOM: A Conference with Eternal Value

By Rick Jett I used to feel sorry for the away team. When I ministered in Marion, Indiana, in the mid-1980s, the Marion Giants were the dominant high school basketball team in the state. They were state champions three years in a row. On game day, everyone in town wore purple and gold to support the home team. Nearly 7,000 fans would fill the high school athletic arena. The ceremony before each home game was designed to intimidate the away team. After everyone stood for the national anthem, the announcer would introduce the starting lineup for the visitors. The cheerleaders

November 11, 2015

Christian Standard

Church Leadership

The Secret-Driven Life

By Jim Tune (This column was first posted November 5, 2014.) To be real is to risk. I know many preachers who feel a deep reluctance (often well-founded) to reveal who they really are to those they lead. Henri Nouwen suggests that pastors are the least confessing people in the church. The expectations demanded of pastors in our Western culture are often unattainable, unsustainable, and soul-withering. I admit that I have sometimes allowed my own fear of vulnerability to push me into hiding. The trouble with life in the shadows is the double life it promotes in the shadow dweller.

November 4, 2015

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Listen

By Jim Tune Earlier in my ministry, I viewed evangelism as almost entirely an act of proclamation. Evangelism meant “telling.” It was shaped by modernism and was largely “proof” oriented in its content and approach. A logical argument would be presented following defined lines of traditional apologetic thought. Equipped with the facts and bolstered by books such as Josh McDowell”s Evidence that Demands a Verdict, I could boldly offer “five arguments for the existence of God” or “seven reasons why we can believe that Jesus really did rise from the dead.” The problem with this approach is its reliance on

November 3, 2015

Culture & Public Square Politics & Government

Beyond the Ballot Box

By Mark A. Taylor Once again it”s Election Day in America, and as Christians march to the polls to express their convictions, it”s time to remind ourselves why we go and what we hope to accomplish. Do we expect to change America through the ballot box? As candidates bob and weave to attract the Evangelical vote ahead of caucuses, primaries, and the presidential election a full year from now, how much hope are we hanging on their positions and pronouncements? Jennifer Johnson offered her answer in her message Saturday morning at the International Conference on Missions (ICOM) in Richmond, Virginia.

October 21, 2015

Christian Standard

Colleges & Seminaries Organizations & Events

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 18, 2015

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

It’s OK to Be the ‘Away Team’

By Jim Tune In the fifth century, Romans reclined in their villas in the south of England feeling secure that their world was intact and would remain that way for years to come. Life was good. Sure, the army was busy, always off to subdue an uprising here or resist a barbarian raid there. But the roads still bustled with trade, the public baths were thriving, and the harvest was under way. Meanwhile the Saxons were already crossing the English Channel with designs on the land that once seemed to be the permanent possession of the mighty Roman Empire. Soon

October 14, 2015

Christian Standard

Care & Counseling Grief & Suffering

Sister Ships

By Jim Tune In Tomas TranstrÃ¶mer”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 TranstrÃ¶mer”s narrator assumes, at once able to see his life for what it”s been while also acknowledging the

September 30, 2015

Christian Standard

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation

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 23, 2015

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

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 naÃ¯ve 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 9, 2015

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

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 2, 2015

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

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

August 26, 2015

Christian Standard

Christian Living

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 19, 2015

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

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 12, 2015

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Justice

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