Tag Archive - Henri Nouwen

Good Friday: Death…Awaiting Resurrection

April 10, 2009 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

white-crucifixionPainting: White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall

How often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting, and prayer? How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season without even being aware of it? But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent? How can I rejoice fully in your Resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death?

Yes, Lord, I have to die—with you, through you, and in you—and thus become ready to recognize you when you appear to me in your Resurrection. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed and anger, impatience and stinginess…. I see clearly now how little I have died with you, really gone your way and been faithful to it. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen. (A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee by Henri Nouwen)

Paradigm Shifting, Life Shaping Books

March 17, 2009 in Uncategorized with 15 Comments

It seems we all like books. And we especially like making lists of books. In 2005 I wrote The Five Books I Would Recommend to a College Student…or Actually, to Anyone!, and listed in another post the Top 100 Religious Books of the 20th Century According to Christianity Today. If you want you could access lists for the 100 Best Novels and 100 Best Nonfiction Lists, and yes, there is even a list for the 100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man’s Library. Sorry women, I couldn’t find your list.

But what I’m interested in here is another list. Books that have been paradigm shifting, and life shaping for you.

When we think of books in those terms I think the lists we have are often reduced, because just not every book, or every other book….or even 1 in every 1000 book or so is paradigm shifting, and for that matter gives shape to your life.

There were many more I could have listed, but I have listed my 10 below. It’s interesting to notice how many of them come out of required reading for graduate school or my vocational interests. So though these books are important to me, I wonder what new books will be added as my vocational interests broaden over the years. As a former pastor, current therapist and social media/tech dabbler, the books I choose might be very different than someone else in the same lines of profession, and maybe very, very different from someone in different vocations. Maybe?

What 10 books have been paradigm shifting and life shaping for you?

The Latin Quarter, Paris, France

These are my 10, and I will just say why in 1-2 sentences, or maybe just a few words…AND they are not in order of importance (except the Bible), but rather alphabetically by author’s last name.

Continue Reading…

Emerging Into Our Identity

March 5, 2009 in Marriage-Family, Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 9 Comments

windingroadEmerging Adulthood
I have always seemed to work with a lot of people in the midst of that life transition from college to young adult, or to what is often referred to as emerging adulthood.  So because of the extension of adolescence, and the pushing of adulthood and it’s responsibilities to later years (late 20′s to early and mid-30′s) people often find themselves wrestling with questions that have often been resolved, or at least grappled with in early developmental stages.

In my work as a college admission recruiter, college pastor and marriage and family therapist, I often work with people who come to me with questions that they can’t quite formulate themselves, but that touch at the core of who they are, and are very existential in nature in many ways.

They are questions of identity, or “Who am I”, “What am I to do”, “What do I believe.”

Fundamental Questions
Over the last 6 months my supervisor has helped me formulate some questions that touch at the heart of clients that I work with that are going through this life transition.

So I often tell my client that they are asking 3 very basic, very fundamental questions:

  1. Who am I?
  2. What am I to do with myself?
  3. How am I to be loved?

Questions that we have been asking for thousands of years, and in reality, each of the questions are components of one another, and sometimes one must be answered for the other to be answered as well.

Continue Reading…

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 5–How Twitter Can Catalyze Your Ministry

June 16, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

Despite some of the bad press recently regarding Twitter, I still must say that I absolutely love it. Sure there are days when things take way too long to load, or they don’t load at all. But despite all that, Twitter is still the first site that I log onto when I get on the internet in the morning. What other site is going to instantly bring me up to date with what everyone in my network (friends, family, co-workers, etc) is doing?

For a great step by step primer on Twitter, check out Matt Singley’s post.

Check out Twitter in Plain English series below:

Those are some great resources on Twitter. And in fact, lots of people are writing about Twitter so it’s not hard to find online some effective ways to use it. So what I want to focus on in this post is just a few ways how you can effectively use Twitter in your ministry…or as I say above, how it can catalyze your ministry.

Three Reasons to Use Twitter in Your Ministry Continue Reading…

Downward Mobility is not Cool

May 28, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross.
Henri Nouwen, In The Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, 62.

Just yesterday I was in two conversations on topics related to discipleship, coolness and downward mobility.

Bottom line: We tend to live in a culture where we all want to be cool. So much so, that the Church often tries to find cool ways to bring people to Jesus and into the Church.

And let’s admit it, we all want to be cool, there are just sometimes varying degrees of it. People in Los Angeles really want to be cool, and try very, very hard at it….and yep I live in Los Angeles.

We try to wear cool clothes, hang out at cool places, attend cool churches and be in small groups with cool people.

But I’m left here scratching my head thinking to myself: “I can’t think of anything cool about following Jesus. Giving your life away, carrying your cross and following Jesus to the cross is just not cool.”

So what are we doing then by trying to make Jesus and Church cool? Takes us nowhere and leaves us empty.
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