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Matthew Lynch is associate professor of Old Testament at Regent College and the author of Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God.

In this episode, helps us understand how biblical stories of violence fit into the grand arc of the biblical narrative, as well as how these stories inform our work as ministry leaders.


THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Matthew Lynch is associate professor of Old Testament at Regent College and the author of Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God.
• Matthew Lynch’s book focuses on two stories of violence in particular: the Flood and the Conquest of Canaan.
• We need to read the Bible through the lens of Genesis 1.
• Matthew Lynch uses “shalom” as a catchall for “right-relating wholeness before and with God.”
• Violence is a direct attack on the shalom that characterizes the good creation of God.
• Violence has no essential or primordial place in creation.  It’s not part of creation’s charter.
• Genesis 6 tells us that before God sent the flood, the world was already ruined because violence filled the earth.
• Joshua and the Canaan’s conquest is a decidedly “in-between” story.
• Canaan had been an old Egyptian outpost manned by warlords.
• Joshua casts a vision of a counterculture to the imperial system that Israel is finally getting out from under.
• Matthew Lynch unpacks the challenging command of God in Joshua to “completely destroy” the Canaanites.
• Jericho was more of a military outpost than a city.  There wouldn’t have been many women and children.
• According to Matthew Lynch, the framework of scripture is decidedly shalom-oriented.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

• Books mentioned:
  • Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God
• Matthew Lynch:
  • Regent College faculty page
  • OnScript podcast

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Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Tom Sine in Episode 118: Forecasting and Innovation.

“I ache because churches rarely even look over the fence in their own communities to the new innovation going on.”

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Steven Garber is Senior Fellow for Vocation and the Common Good at the M.J. Murdoch Charitable Trust and author of The Seamless Life.

In this episode, Steven Garber helps us reflect on some important leadership questions.  What does it mean to live a life of deep coherence?  What does it mean to live a life in which every part of our life is a reflection of and an expression of our whole life?  And why do we as leaders need to live seamless lives?

THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Steven Garber is Senior Fellow for Vocation and the Common Good at the M.J. Murdoch Charitable Trust and author of The Seamless Life.
• To think of our lives as “incoherent” is to live our lives in compartments.  But Steven Garber says we don’t have to choose, for example, between being a scientist and a Christian.  Both are part of our coherent self.
• John Newton, the slave trader who wrote “Amazing Grace,” for many years lived a compartmentalized incoherent life.
• When Steven Garber was a young man discovering the invitation to “coherence” in his life, he realized that he was going to have to rethink how he thought about girls!
• Tamim is the Hebrew word for integrity or coherence.
• Seamlessness has to do with identity.
• The question of vocation, according to Steven Garber, always begins with Who am I?  And the next question is Why am I?
• Vocation is integral (not incidental) to the missio dei, to the very meaning of God’s work in the world.
• Pastors can begin to live more integral and seamless lives by being mindful of the teachers they listen to and follow.  Are our teachers, not only speaking words of coherence, but living lives of coherence and seamlessness?

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

• Website:
  • Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture
• Books mentioned:
  • The Seamless Life, by Steve Garber
  • Visions of Vocation, by Steve Garber
  • Captain Blood, by Rafael Sabatini
• Authors mentioned:
  • John Stott
  • Leslie Newbigin
  • Augustine of Hippo
  • Helmut Thielicke
• Related episodes:
  • Episode 48: Integrity and Coherence in Leadership, with Lisa Slayton, CEO of Tamim Partners
  • Episode 77: To Know the World and Still Love It, with Steven Garber, author of Visions of Vocation

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Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Make Work Matter, by Michaela O'Donnell.

"I am not on a solo mission from God.  I am part of a larger collective of people who get to join in on God’s big mission of redemption creatively working in anticipation of all that God is doing to make us new."

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Tom Sine’s most recent book (co-authored with Dwight Friesen) is 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change.

Tom Sine has been doing future forecasting for many decades and has helped lots of churches think about what is happening in their communities now so that they can make plans as they anticipate what is coming in the next several years.

Tom also thinks a lot about the younger generations and how their presence and activity will shape our society in the coming years and decades.   And what I love about Tom’s knowledge of the younger generations is that it is based not only on research, but on relationships.

We talk about all of this in this episode of Spiritual Life and Leadership.


THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Tom Sine’s most recent book (co-authored with Dwight Friesen) is 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change.
• For 28 years, Tom taught a course at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Seattle extension called “Christian World View in Rapidly Changing Times.”
• Tom Sine explains why churches today have a difficult time connecting with Gen Y and Gen Z.
• Tom shares an example of young people who made a difference in their community.
• Younger generations may be dropping off from the church because they are more concerned about social issues.  And they may not see the church engaging in the issues that matter to them.
• To begin engaging in forecasting, it is helpful to talk to business leaders in our churches.
• Tom Sine says we need to move beyond charity to real serious neighborhood empowerment.
• Gen Y and Gen Z will not be able to afford homes as nice as their parents.
• Tom Sine recommends we come up with creative living arrangements.
• On May 10, 2023, Tom Sine will be doing a webinar together with Tod Bolsinger titled, "Leadership and the Challenges Facing our Neighbors Today and Tomorrow:  Your Community’s Pain, Your Calling.”  Registration info is coming soon.

• Books mentioned:
  • 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change, by Ton Sine and Dwight Friesen
  • Live Like You Give a Damn: Join the Changemaking Celebration, by Tom Sine
• Blog:
  • Christine Sine - www.godspacelight.com
• Related episodes:
  • Episode 118: Forecasting and Innovation, with Tom Sine and Dwight Friesen, co-authors of 2020s Foresight

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Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Strong and Weak, by Andy Crouch.

“Flourishing requires us to embrace both authority and vulnerability, both capacity and frailty--even, at least in this broken world, both life and death.”

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Thom Rainer is the CEO of Church Answers and the author of many books, including I Believe: A Concise Guide to the Essentials of the Christian Faith.

In this episode, Thom Rainer discusses an article he wrote in which he said we need to rethink how we categorize churches, now that the median church size is 65—meaning 50% of churches in the U.S. have fewer than 65 people in church every Sunday!

What does this decline mean and how should we lead in this strange new world?


THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Thom Rainer is the CEO of Church Answers and the author of many books, including I Believe: A Concise Guide to the Essentials of the Christian Faith.
• Thom Rainer wrote an article titled “The New Very Large Church.”
• Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this article in Episode 150: The New Normal of Church Attendance.
• Thom Rainer’s article says that since the pandemic, here is how churches ought to be categorized:
  • Under 50 in attendance: smaller churches
  • 51-99: mid-size churches
  • 100-249: large churches
  • 250 and above: larger churches
• 92% of church in the U.S. today have less than 250 people in attendance each week.
• According to Thom Rainer, the pandemic gave “cultural Christians” permission to stop attending church or attend church less frequently.
• Commitment to church attendance has declined even among those who previously had been very committed to their church.
• The church is called to be not only the church gathered, but also the church going.
• Thom Rainer notes that receptivity to Christianity and to simple invitations to church seem to be higher than ever.
• Thom Rainer discusses the skills a pastor needs as the church’s attendance declines.
• The number of megachurches in America has not increased for the past 15 years.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

• Book mentioned:
  •  I Believe: A Concise Guide to the Essentials of the Christian Faith, by Thom Rainer
• Article:
  • “The New Very Large Church,” by Thom Rainer
• Church Answers
• Know Your Community demographic report
• Related episodes:
  • Episode 150: The New Normal of Church Attendance, a Quick Conversation with Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

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Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from A Failure of Nerve, by Edwin Friedman.

“In any type of institution whatsoever, when a self-directed, imaginative, energetic, or creative member is being consistently frustrated and sabotaged rather than encouraged and supported, what will turn out to be true one hundred percent of the time, regardless of whether the disrupters are supervisors, subordinates, or peers, is that the person at the very top of that institution is a peace-monger.”

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Ruth Haley Barton is the Founder and Chief Essence Officer of the Transforming Center and the author of Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest.

There is so much to do as pastors and leaders.  And if I’m going to get everything done, there’s very little time to rest.  Or if I do take some time to rest, work and responsibility are just gonna sneak their way into that time of rest, anyway.

In this episode, Ruth Haley Barton and I ask:  How am I called and invited to practice this gift of Sabbath?  And how will a Sabbath practice impact, not only my personal life, but also my life of ministry leadership? 


THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Ruth Haley Barton is the Founder and Chief Essence Officer of the Transforming Center and the author of Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest.
• As a child, Ruth Haley Barton’s family practiced Sabbath in a very legalistic way, but stopped practicing the Sabbath as a young adult.  Ruth began practicing the Sabbath in her forties.
• Sabbath involves stopping, resisting, and delighting.
• Ruth Haley Barton says there is an edginess to Sabbath in that it is designed in part to release us from whatever oppresses us.
• Sabbath involves doing the kinds of things that bring us delight.
• Sabbath is not the same thing as solitude and silence.  Sabbath is a communal practice.
• Ruth Haley Barton explains how she navigated implementing the Sabbath when her kids were teenagers.
• Churches need to consider whether they encourage people—including their clergy—to practice the Sabbath.
• It is helpful for a church staff to take Sabbath together.
• If pastors would rest for twenty-four hours once a week, they would bring a healthier quality of leadership to their churches.
• Ruth Haley Barton points out that the Sabbath gives us an opportunity to trust God with what is bothering us.
• Ruth Haley Barton offers some suggestions for how we can begin to dip our toes into a regular Sabbath practice.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

• Books mentioned:
  • Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest, by Ruth Haley Barton
• Transforming Center
• Church Leadership Institute
• Related episode:
  • Ep. 70: The Subversiveness of Sabbath, with A.J. Swoboda

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

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How does your church attendance compare?  Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss an article by Thom Rainer titled "The New Very Large Church."

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.