Articles for tag: Rebel Pilgrim Productions

May 27, 2017

Christian Standard

The Culture of Certainty

By Joe Boyd Something has been gnawing at me for more than a year. It”s been hard to put into words, but it”s a frustration that seems ever present. I feel it when I turn on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. It”s there at work. It”s also present at church. Ever present. Everywhere. For lack of a better way to label it, I”m going to call it the “culture of certainty.” It just seems to me there is no room in any of our political, social, or religious conversations to be unsure, let alone to be wrong. I once heard

May 8, 2017

Christian Standard

5 Questions about New Ideas

By Joe Boyd Springtime always stimulates new ideas for me. But I”ve learned I should pursue only some of them.  There is something about springtime that makes all things new. Winter can be a cold and gray marathon to endure, especially for those of us on the East Coast and in the Midwest. But then comes life. Every April and May I find myself full of new ideas. And I should say that I love new ideas. They are like catnip for my soul. As a movie producer, I have no shortage of people pitching story ideas to me. Some

August 26, 2016

Christian Standard

Competition and Compassion

By Joe Boyd We live in a competitive culture. We see this at every turn, but are more aware of it every four summers when two cycles converge””the presidential election and the Summer Olympics. Both, in very different ways, show us that deep in our core we can”t help but compete. Of course, we don”t need these macro-events to know this. We”ve all been to a Little League game or a dancing competition where, seemingly, the kids are having a good time but the parents and coaches are driving the competitive fervor. It can seem we grown-ups spend a lot

June 5, 2016

Christian Standard

Advice from an Elder

By Joe Boyd We live in a youth-obsessed culture. A quick glance at the way we market and sell products makes that clear. While traditional cultures had a way of honoring their elders, most of us modern Americans tend to struggle with that. This, I would submit, is to our disadvantage. It”s countercultural today in America to honor our elders, yet they hold the wisdom we so desperately need. This was clear to me as I prepared this spring to return to Cincinnati Christian University, my alma mater, to be a commencement speaker. It may be the first time in

April 4, 2016

Christian Standard

Is Baseball Really Dead?

By Joe Boyd Some of my favorite family memories are the yearly trips into Cincinnati from my home in eastern Kentucky to watch the Reds play baseball. There”s nothing like walking into a Major League Baseball stadium for the first time, turning a corner, and seeing that vast green grass ocean spread before you. Baseball is a throwback to an older, slower time. There is no clock. Games play out at their own pace. Unlike other popular sports, losses are expected. A team can lose 80 games and still win the World Series. The season is a marathon, long like

February 5, 2016

Christian Standard

Happy New Year?

By Joe Boyd So, a few weeks into 2016, how”s it going? Will it be a happy year or not?  Sometimes happiness is counterintuitive. At 42 years old, I have come to realize I can drift toward unhappiness. There”s a lot that plays into this for me. My personality type (INTP) tends toward melancholy with a chemical propensity to depression. But I”ve also found I can make choices that increase my capacity for happiness. Here are some practical steps I have taken over the last decade that have helped me. Maybe they will help you too. 1. Exercise. I know,

December 31, 2015

Christian Standard

The Spiritual Discipline of Play?

By Joe Boyd Last week I sat across from a good friend and trusted adviser at a LaRosa”s Pizzeria in Cincinnati. (He”s also a clinical psychologist, so I can sometimes get therapy for the price of a pizza.) I was telling him all the good things that were causing anxiety in my life: my growing kids, growing business, and growing church responsibilities. He looked at me and asked, “What are you doing for fun?” Almost without thinking, I replied, “I don”t have time for fun at this time in my life.” His look said it all. I knew the glaring

December 21, 2015

Christian Standard

The Gift That Changed My Life

By Joe Boyd Our culture creates expectations around Christmas. One of the greatest of these is gift giving. When done out of compulsion, giving gifts can become an unhealthy habit. However, when done in love, a gift can change a life.  About a dozen years ago my wife, Debbie, gave me the most transformative gift I have ever received. It changed the trajectory of my life (and hers) forever. I”m not setting you up to talk about the birth of my kids here. I am talking about a normal, regular old traditional Christmas gift that changed everything. She had no

October 29, 2015

Christian Standard

Choosing the Best Story

By Joe Boyd The world is a dangerous place. Issues like extremist terrorism, systemic racism, and constant political backbiting seem insurmountable. As a Christian, I believe there is a way through God to a better future. But how? Where is that way? And how do I walk in it? I”ve come to believe that the kingdom (the Way of Jesus) comes in only one form: story. The problems I see associated with the world today all boil down to the big stories, the metanarratives we all live within. For many people, the biggest story they live inside is their personal

July 23, 2015

Christian Standard

Ryan Phipps’s Thought Leaders

We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Ryan Phipps, lead pastor of Forefront Manhattan in New York City. ________ I know my Bible. I know how to articulate what I believe. Where I find myself forever lacking, however, in a melting pot of all things like New York City, is how “to understand, rather than to be understood.” I take the time to learn from people who “understand”

July 13, 2015

Christian Standard

Laura Buffington’s Thought Leaders

We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Laura Buffington, teaching pastor with SouthBrook Christian Church, Miamisburg, Ohio. ________ Wendell Berry: His poetry, stories, and essays on knowing our place and living in place reshape the world for me every time I read him. Christena Cleveland: Her work on loving through differences is truthful and painful in all the correct ways. Lee Magness: I”m indebted to many teachers

October 28, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

How to Succeed at Influencing Culture

By Mark A. Taylor How do you measure the success of your ministry? Joe Boyd and Rich Gorman and I talked about that for almost an hour last week in Christian Standard”s monthly Beyond the Standard online interview program, all while trying to address our assigned topic, “Church and Culture.” “The hardest thing about vocational ministry,” Boyd said, “is you never really know if you”ve done a good job or not.” Boyd doesn”t believe numbers alone can tell the story. He spoke about the ministry of Jesus who preached to the thousands but soon had only a dozen followers. And

October 2, 2014

Christian Standard

John”s Gospel””Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

By Jennifer Johnson Many lifelong believers find it difficult to have a fresh perspective on the Bible”s stories, and many seekers and skeptics have never heard them. Joe Boyd”s “The Bible Experiment,” live theatrical retellings of the Bible”s great stories, is designed to reach both groups. Boyd launched the project in April with two shows of the Gospel of John in Cincinnati. More than 1,000 people attended. “The goal was just to tell the story as best we could without leaving anything out and without an agenda,” says Boyd, who served in ministry roles at churches in Las Vegas and

June 17, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Really Something!

By Mark A. Taylor Joe Boyd says the Bible came alive to him when he was just 8 years old. The Sunday school lesson of the day was about Jacob and Esau and how Esau, famished from a day in “the open country,” gave up his birthright for a bowl of Jacob”s stew (Genesis 25:29-34). “Our teacher told us that story,” Boyd remembers, “and then she pulled out a thermos, unscrewed the cap, and poured each of us a serving of lentil stew in a paper cup. “I”d never tasked lentil stew before, and it was good! It dawned on

March 30, 2013

Christian Standard

The Alternative Story

By Joe Boyd I want to change the world. I”m obviously not alone. Protestors, politicians, pastors, parents, and beauty pageant contestants””we all love to talk about changing the world. Just stick a microphone in front of one of us and we”ll gladly poetically drone about change and hope and the power of possibility. Except for a few fringe extremists, everyone I know genuinely desires world peace. We want to see the hungry fed, the endangered children saved, and the abandoned elderly dignified. It isn”t too hard for us to imagine a better world without slave traders, child abusers, and hatemongers. We want

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