End of the Spear

Jim Elliot was one of the missionaries that died in the jungle of Ecudaor trying to take the Gospel to the Waodani tribe, a tribe known for its violence. Elliot is the author of the now famous quote, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which [...]

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Collaboration

It surprises me. I went to the meeting believing that I had thoroughly considered the merits and disadvantages of the issue. I took my place in the circle of chairs and waited for the meeting to begin.
I enjoy watching the process. People with different careers, experience, education, and gender mix their thoughts [...]

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Blown Up

I’ve been told I have blown up the church planting model I was given. I didn’t mean to do it. It was all quite innocent. I didn’t realize it was going to shape up this way.
The first model is based on marketing. It requires a team of helpers and lots of [...]

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Blogging

I love blogging. It’s such a good way to give my friends an update on what is going on. There’s far too many of them to call individually or even write a letter to. So, unlike the cartoon, I’m not avoiding people contact. I’m just trying to provide a timely update to [...]

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Webs

Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called Chains.
Various people have tested [...]

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Baby Boomers

I’m a Baby Boomer. My cohort grew up with the Vietnam War, Haight Ashbury, Janice Joplin, and free love. We are a huge group of people with incredible power and appetites.
Maybe that is one of the reasons that our children are asking for something different. Relationships instead of cocooning. Community service and [...]

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The Father

You can see some neat things if you’re observant. Today I noticed an elderly man sitting by himself in a local business. He was reading a newspaper and minding his own business.
I got a table for myself and set up shop. Then a middle-aged man came in, and the elderly man greeted [...]

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Retreat

We arrived at the retreat location about 1 PM. I can’t tell you the location because I’d have to kill you.
There were nearly 20 of us that spent 28 hours together. The retreat began with a road race. This was a neat opportunity to test our team building skills.
Our facilitator [...]

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Friendship

I can’t express how dear my friends are to me. I just got off the phone with a particularly good friend of mine. He’s the sort of person your can pour out your joys and frustrations to without fear.
When you have a friend like that you don’t have to worry about anything being [...]

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Typo

I pulled the little cardboard tag out of my post office box that said, “You have a package,” and I went happily to the counter. I expected it would either be the pens I had ordered or the cellophane bags.
We ordered the pens and the bags for the purpose of advertising, and I’ve eagerly [...]

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