A blog designed to develop missional leaders
Most of us this week are confined to our homes as we self-quarantine due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. If you’re like me, you may be wrestling with the fact that THIS week we will all be observing Holy Week apart from each other. As a pastor and missionary, I always anticipate the... Continue Reading →
It is a little paradoxical to write about Easter in the middle of Lent, but every year we pastors prepare our Easter sermons during the heart of the sacrifice and fasting that Lent brings, so the practice makes sense. In many of our countries, Easter is the day people return to the normalcy of work... Continue Reading →
By Teanna Sunberg Tomorrow, across the globe, many Christ followers will line up at altars to be marked on the forehead or the hand with ashes. It is Ash Wednesday. It is the first day of Lent – this plodding and sometimes painful wandering towards the brokenness of the cross that culminates in the miracle... Continue Reading →
By Leonard Sweet (European Nazarene College, January 18, 2011) I was reading Psalm 51:10 to my mother when she died: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a right spirit within me.” Now the key to the holiness movement is a clean heart. So give me an image for a clean heart. ... Continue Reading →
By Scott Armstrong September 1993. I was 15 years old. My dad and mom call a family meeting after supper. My brother and I came down from our rooms, wondering what’s going on. We usually had the famous “family meetings” once a year when some new rule was being enforced or when a vacation needed... Continue Reading →
We begin the Christian calendar with Advent. From my perspective, no one expresses the meaning of this reality better perhaps than Joan Chittister en her book, The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life. Every year is a distinct growth point in life, the shedding of another shell of life. Each year brings... Continue Reading →
Scott Armstrong Ready for a quiz? What period of the Christian calendar are we in right now? If you answered, “Easter” or “Eastertide,” congratulations! I admit that I have written quite a bit about Advent and Lent, and both of those are very important periods in our spiritual walk. But Eastertide is just as important,... Continue Reading →
Scott Armstrong Lent and Holy Week have been pretty important in my life and my spiritual walk through the years. And there is nothing better than when the fasting and solemnity they bring finally culminates in the massive outburst of joy at Easter. Christ is risen! There is no better celebration than Easter! Or at... Continue Reading →
By Frederick Buechner It's at the end that she comes into focus most clearly. She was one of the women who was there in the background when he was being crucified—she had more guts than most of them had—and she was also one of the ones who was there when they put what was left... Continue Reading →
By Scott Armstrong Along with the rest of the world I watched yesterday as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France went up in flames. The unspeakable tragedy became clear as its famous spire tumbled to the ground below. Millions of people correctly lamented such a horrendous loss and attempts to raise funds in order to... Continue Reading →
Transform the Globe 