17 Ways to Respond to Explosive Politics
This coming week, millions of people will be rejoicing or weeping as the latest political season comes to its climactic end. The emotions that are now building to a crescendo will not dissipate quickly or harmlessly. Many family, workplace and church relationships will be further damaged and in some cases destroyed as heated emotions continue […]
Report on Capitol Hill Training
Thank you for your prayer support during my training in Washington, D.C. last week. What an exhilarating experience! The training for congressional staff was rewarding for me as we engaged in discussions on how to apply the principles of relational wisdom not only in their work on Capitol Hill but also in their personal lives, […]
Training on Capitol Hill
Lord willing, this morning I will have the privilege of teaching a three-hour relational wisdom seminar to congressional staff on Capitol Hill. This training was arranged by a U.S. Congresswoman who has become an advocate for RW and peacemaking in our nation’s capital. If this seminar goes well, it could open the door for further […]
Download Conference Recordings
By God’s grace, our recent Sowing Peace Conference was a great success. In addition to enjoying outstanding worship and warm fellowship, we were blessed with 40+ keynote sessions and workshops that deepened our ability to model, practice and teach relational wisdom, biblical peacemaking and Christian conciliation. All of these recordings and the related handouts are […]
Another Abuse Scandal … and a Proactive Response
The Christian church has been rocked once again by a major sexual abuse scandal, which involves the largest protestant denomination in the United States. As one of last Sunday’s headlines read, “Southern Baptists Refused to Act on Abuse.” The subtitle to this article was even more heartbreaking: “SBC Executive Committee staff saw advocates’ cries for […]
Has Your Strength Become a Weakness?
To find your greatest weakness, first identify your greatest strength and then look right behind it. That’s one of the tragic results of sin: it twists our strengths into weaknesses, just as (-1) x 100 becomes -100. Are you highly intelligent and well-studied in the Bible? Look out, because your knowledge can puff you up […]
The Dangers of “Good” Advocacy
One of the cases referred to me by a major arbitration organization involved a large contract dispute. Although the facts and the law were clearly in the defendant’s favor, the plaintiff’s attorney did a masterful job advocating his client’s position. Testimony that could have been presented in a few hours stretched into three long days, […]
Polemic Theology – How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us
Dr. Roger R. Nicole, Visiting Professor at Reformed Theological Seminary Part 1: What Do I Owe to the Person Who Differs from Me? We are called upon by the Lord to contend earnestly for the faith. (Jude 3) That does not necessarily involve being contentious; but it involves avoiding compromise, standing forth for what we […]
Strike the Shepherd
Forced pastoral exits are costing the American church millions of dollars a year. The kingdom cost for these forced exits is far higher. Consider these sobering statistics[1]: 23 percent of all current pastors in the United States have been fired or forced to resign from past positions. The average pastoral tenure in a local church […]
Build a Peace Sower Team in Your Church!
Moses made a major mistake that many church leaders are still making today. He tried to single-handedly resolve all of the relational tensions and conflicts among the people God had placed under his care. When his father-in-law saw what Moses was doing, he admonished him with these insightful words: “What you are doing is not […]