The negative emotions we feel are meant to cause us to reflect on self and circumstance to consider changing what we are doing or where we are. The current cultural moment is amplifying emotions. That amplification could manifest as an increase in generalised anxiety. The situation does not create the generalised anxiety, so much as …
Conversations with pastors from a wide variety of contexts resonate with the theme explored in this article. There are structures in some aspects of contemporary church life that make imperatives out of beneficial non-essentials. And a sure sign of spiritual growth trying to be achieved through human effort is a burn-out attrition among leaders and …
It seems as if joy was in short supply during the season of joy. Winn Collier writes that real joy is not the product of circumstances, true joy is hard won in adverse circumstances. These are the seasons in which true and lasting joy can be tempered and grown. Joy’s hard won these days. At …
In a brief article at Christian Century, Craig Barnes writes about the disposition of wanting to protect people from their own hurt feelings, and how the life in the church is not meant to be place where flawed people grow in Christ likeness by experiencing the imperfections that remain within us: Congregations are filled with …
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