cultural engagement Archives

A few years ago, I wrote several posts on the value of crucible experiences, particularly concerning leadership development. Crucible experiences are difficult, often painful events or losses in our lives that have the potential to refine us. But as I repeatedly said in those previous posts, difficult life experiences in themselves do not refine us. Our response to the crucible experiences of life and ministry is what allows the crucible to become transformative. Marriage is a crucible Crucible experiences often come in every-day life experiences. I just finished reading (listening to) Gary Thomas’s great book, Sacred Marriage: What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy? Repeatedly Thomas helps the reader see that marriage is in itself a crucible that has the potential to burn away some of the most basic weaknesses of our human nature. Here are a couple of quotes from the book:… Read the whole post

This blog post was written by Dr. Rick Perhai, who serves with SEND in Ukraine and teaches at Kyiv Theological Seminary. Timothy Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012. By Richard J. Perhai, Ph.D. Church planters face many challenges in the God–ordained work of establishing new churches. Cross-cultural church planters face even more challenges that demand serious calling, prayer support, and teamwork all led by the Holy Spirit. Mission agency leadership can spend months and even years mentoring new recruits and retooling missionaries for cross-cultural church planting. But one area is often overlooked, namely that many missionary candidates from rural or suburban upbringings are unprepared for planting churches in the foreign culture of the city. Enter Timothy Keller and his book Center Church. The book is considered by many a compendium of much Keller has written before. For example, his… Read the whole post

Blog topics

Tag: cultural engagement

Culture shock: God’s crucible?

Keeping urban church planters centered