A victim of friendly fire

Posted on September 5, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

It has been said that the church is the only army that shoots its wounded. Sometimes the wounds are caused by friendly fire. It is the responsibility of church leaders to identify and correct this when it happens.

What Authentic Christian Community Looks Like

Years ago, when I first started attending church, I thought I had to “look good and be good”. I believed that I needed to appear as if I had my act together and never messed up… and if I did, no one need ever find out about it. The good news is that I was dead wrong.

Is teaching the greatest gift in the church?

It is clear from the Bible that we should not be out of balance in spiritual gifts. But is it possible to be out of balance about teaching? I think it is.

Thoughts on forgiveness

Isaiah’s cry, “I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5) resonates with me this morning. I have wounded others and have been wounded by others through both speech and action. The question arises as to how to respond to the wounds. There are three possible […]

6 Questions to Ask Before Presuming on Grace

I have had a few discussions lately with people that have struggled with the tension between law and grace. This is not a new question, and the Bible does have some things to say to us as we work out how to navigate through this tension. There are many issues on which the Bible is […]

Don’t play the Korah card

I have been in a couple of situations where concerns were brought to a pastor who then likened the one who brought the concern to Korah attacking Moses. While I understand the temptation for a leader to deal with a complaint in this way, that temptation must be resisted. Not only is it inappropriate, it does nothing to fix the situation (unless of course the leader’s goal is to eliminate any other opinion than his own).

Why are you amazed?

I can read about miracles in the Bible and not be amazed. The flannel graph presentations of my youth have made the stories so familiar that too often I do not connect with how radical the events actually were. This healing should amaze me but its familiarity masks how marvelous it really is.