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“You’re a nasty woman!” “You’re a liar!” “Lock her up!” “Your followers are a bucket of deplorables!” What has happened to civility in political discourse? By the dictionary definition, civility means politeness or courtesy, being respectful or considerate. Words once found in PG-13 or R-rated movies are now featured in political speech. Why should Christ-followers be concerned about civility? When does respectful speech enter into a disciplemaking curriculum? Our theology of the creation accounts should dictate our respect. Civility began at the Creation. Men and…

Wow! I didn’t expect that to happen. We had our neighbors over for dinner recently and the conversation soon turned to the elections. It wasn’t a contentious discussion but a sharing of opinions. After about ten minutes, Steve jumped up from the table and started walking around the room! He was so worked up about the candidates that he couldn’t sit still. We didn’t cause an argument, he was simply passionate about what he believed in. When Steve and Jane left, Peggy and I talked…

Christians should approach politics with a radical strategy. This strategy is so obvious that it’s like the boy in his kindergarten Sunday School class. When the teacher held up a picture of a squirrel and asked the child what it was, the boy replied, “I think it’s a squirrel but I’m going to say ‘Jesus!’” Sometimes our “spiritual” statements are at odds with reality. You might place the strategy I’m proposing in this category. This radical strategy could be written off as simply a pious…

None of us likes to be conned. There’s nothing more irritating than realizing that a salesperson tricked us into a purchase. Deception leaves an empty feeling in our hearts. How does this happen in disciple-making? We can trick ourselves into thinking that life change has happened because we’ve learned something new. It’s easy to scurry from one Bible study to another, priding ourselves on the new information we’ve collected. Along the way, no one pressed us to reflect and obey. The New Testament writer James…

My first Mac was love at first sight. I enjoyed its elegant but slightly clunky look. Here was a computer that didn’t need multiple commands to create a document or make an illustration. All I had to do was point and click. Simplicity ruled the day. Simplicity was a governing principle for Steve Jobs in creating the Apple brand. The author of his popular biography writes: “He made devices simpler by eliminating buttons, software simpler by eliminating features and interfaces simpler by eliminating options.” When…