blameless
Pastor guilty of bilking money from elderly woman . . . Church elder convicted of accounting fraud . . . Pastor of megachurch accused of financial misappropriation.
cynical
I leafed through the book, Can’t Be Bought (not the real title). The book told the challenging story of a megachurch pastor who realized he had built his ministry on marketing strategies rather than on Christ’s call. He decided he would no longer cater to the crowd but instead preach the cost of discipleship and let the chips fall where they may. Sadly, the book isn’t good. And on the last page, the publisher—apparently hoping to cash-in on the success of the book—offered T-shirts emblazoned with that catch phrase, Can’t Be Bought.
the oprah effect
While managing media and public relations for a handful of leading Washington, DC-based nonprofits, I found that nearly every organization I worked for craved recognition on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Their aspiration came as no surprise. Oprah Winfrey, after all, is “The queen of talk, a cultural and financial icon and her impact on business (and charities) is worth billions,” according…
late?
I normally take my kids to school 30 minutes before class begins. One morning we left the house later than normal. When we picked them up from school, my middle son insisted that they had not made it to class on time, and he had proof. He proudly presented “exhibit A”: He had seen our daughter with a detention slip…
mistaken motives
I once sent a hurting person an anonymous note that included the reference for this verse: “Why are you scheming against the Lord? He will destroy you with one blow; He won’t need to strike twice” (Nahum 1:9). Why send that verse, you ask? Well, I thought I was citing Nahum 1:7, “The Lord is good, a strong refuge when…
3 questions
The one thing I desire in ministry is to give God the best that I’ve got. I don’t always succeed, but I aspire to give him my best. How can we be sure that we are giving God the best we’ve got? Based on 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, here are three very important questions that can help us to achieve maximum…
false image
If a star that was 30 light years away had exploded 5 years ago—we wouldn’t notice for another 25 years! The star would look to us as if it hadn’t changed, even though it had in fact died. On earth, we would continue to see the brilliant image of its past—but the real star would be history.
Christ’s letter to…
