Food for Thought
March 31, 2008 |
When Jesus spoke with people, they had his complete attention. The Bible does not say, “And while he sanded wood and kept watch on a pot of stew, Jesus said …” He simply listened, then responded. Individually and compassionately.
In Jesus' meeting with the woman at the well—his longest one-on-one conversation ever recorded in Scripture—she was amazed a Jew was even willing to speak to a Samaritan: “How can you ask me for a drink?” (John 4:9). The disciples were taken aback, too, when they “returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman” (John 4:27).
Continue reading...Posted by Bonnie McMaken on March 31, 2008 | Comments (1)
March Madness: 5 Life Lessons From Basketball
March 28, 2008 |
Basketball. It’s on everyone’s mind right now. Whether you like to play it, watch it, or just endlessly fill in and refill in brackets; basketball is the sport of the moment.
It’s also my favorite sport…I’ve played since I was old enough (and far enough away from the ground) to start dribbling. I can still hear my dad: “Take the ball with you to the post office and dribble the whole way. You’ll never get better if you don’t practice, practice, practice…and don’t just use your right hand either!” So I would put my right hand behind my back and make myself dribble with only my left hand all the way to the post office and back (using my right hand to carry the mail on the way home).
Challenging myself to grow in weak areas wasn’t the only life lesson I took away from my years of basketball…here are four more – random, unrelated, and in no particular order:
Continue reading...Posted by Roxanne Wieman on March 28, 2008 | Comments (1)
Just Like Summer Camp…Well, Sort of
March 25, 2008 |
When I was growing up, I went to Bible camp every summer. Going to camp was one of the absolute highlights of my year. It was right up there with Christmas, my birthday, the last day of school, and the first snowfall.
So what made camp so great? Well, it wasn’t the activities. I could enjoy many of those things at home. It wasn’t the sleeping accommodations—sleeping bags and 3-inch-thick noisy mattresses are a novelty for only a few nights. The food was…well, it was camp food. And I’m not crazy about marshmallows.
Posted by Amy Simpson on March 25, 2008 | Comments (4)
Food for Thought
March 24, 2008 |
I decided to fast. Instead of giving up food, I eliminated my time stealers for 30 days. I checked my e-mail only twice a day. Computer games were gone. I set limits on the number of programs I watched and refused to turn the television on at all during the day. This forced me to choose a couple of favorite shows, which I watched in the evening with my husband. During the day I popped in a CD and filled my home with my favorite worship music.
As the fast concluded, I looked at what I'd gained. My life hadn't changed, just the management of my time. I still had the same 24 hours available to me each day. I still was busy. I still had deadlines. But I'd uncovered pockets of precious moments that I chose to fill carefully. I spent a portion of my morning reading my Bible and talking with God. I took long walks with my husband in the evening or worked outside with our horses. Because my writing and tasks for the day were complete, I could enjoy these things with a clear focus and without guilt. Several of these “luxuries” I'd often neglected in the past because I had “too much to do” and “not enough time.”
Continue reading...Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on March 24, 2008 | Comments (1)
Listening To God's Word
March 20, 2008 |
This month Gifted for Leadership, Leadership Journal, and some of our sister sites are joining to think seriously about Scripture. An exciting foray into this topic begins with an interactive assessment: The Hermeneutics Quiz, by Scot McKnight. This free quiz will give you an insightful perspective into the way in which you interpret Scripture.
For other considerations, read Scot's article on the Leadership website, or dive into Christopher Blumhofer's insightful post below.
A church’s ability to minister to people hinges on its confidence in the Word of God. A low-confidence church can’t teach or preach or serve with any real sense of expectation. It can’t profess assurance that God speaks or that listening for his voice is worthwhile. A high-confidence church lives in another reality: a realm in which God speaks and acts, calls and sends.
Continue reading...Posted by Roxanne Wieman on March 20, 2008 | Comments (3)
A Woman's Worship Journey
March 18, 2008 |
Easter is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It’s one of those great days that is ripe with nostalgia, with family, and with deepening meaning as I grow older and the clamoring voices grow quieter. I was recently reflecting that it’s funny how you can hear a story so many times as a child and yet it can take on a new life and a new voice as the hearer becomes a woman.
This was my experience of Luke’s narrative of Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Jesus on that first Easter dawn. Perhaps most of us have sat in a Holy Week service or leaned in to some familial storyteller and heard about that Easter morning when Mary arrived at the tomb, her eyes damp with tears, and mistook the Christ for a common gardener in her grief. More often than not, this narrative was mixed in with the many other accounts of eyewitness testimony—some of them charming, some of them fantastical.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on March 18, 2008 | Comments (0)
Food for Thought
March 17, 2008 |
While I don’t understand everything, there is one thing I am solidly convinced of: a call is not a career. The pivotal distinction between the two may be the most important thing we ever understand about the call of God, especially in these times.
The words themselves immediately suggest one difference. Our English word career comes from the French carriere, meaning “a road,” or “a highway.” The image suggests a course one sets out on, road map in hand, goal in sight, stops marked along the way for food, lodging, and fuel.
Posted by Bonnie McMaken on March 17, 2008 | Comments (5)
Savoring Synergy
March 16, 2008 |
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
—African Proverb
Several years ago, when I was facing major surgery, I learned just how alone a person can feel and also what it means to have someone come alongside you.
At the time, I was an employee of the hospital where I was now an anxious patient. When I awoke the morning of my surgery, both my husband and my boss (an amazing woman who was also to me both a mentor and a friend) were there for me. As I was wheeled up to the surgical suite, I had an IV on one side and my friend on the other. Her hand was gently resting on my shoulder pumping courage into me.
There’s more than a little truth in the African proverb that we need one another to go the distance in the battles God puts in our path.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on March 16, 2008 | Comments (2)
Competitive Balancing
March 14, 2008 |
I spent my morning reading the book Ten Apples Up On Top to my three-year-old. For those of you not currently engaging a preschooler in your daily lives, let me give you the quick plot summary of Ten Apples Up On Top.
A lion, a dog, and a tiger compete with one another to see who can stack the most apples on his head. They start with the simple act of balancing the apples. But soon the have to resort to doing tricks while balancing the apples—jumping rope, climbing a tree, walking on a tightrope, roller skating, and on and on. By the time they have all reached the ten titular apples, they have started working together, even encouraging one another in their efforts. But then the bear comes along.
For some reason, the bear is not impressed with all this apple balancing. So she starts chasing the three friends with her mop in hand, ready to knock those apples off. She is soon joined by the rest of her bear family as well as by a flock of birds who want those apples in a bad way. A frenzied chase ensues which leads to….
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on March 14, 2008 | Comments (1)
Synergy 2008 Conference
March 13, 2008 |
Friday-Sunday, April 11-13, 2008
Crowne Plaza Hotel—Orlando Airport
Orlando, Florida
Register
FINDING YOUR PLACE IN THE STORY: The Return of the Ezer
• This conference is the starting place for teaching and painting the picture of the ezer.
• The message: "God has created you as an ezer."
• God created a perfect plan, addressing creation and the fall.
KEY SPEAKERS:
Carolyn Custis James
Leigh McLeroy
Reggie Kidd
Rebecca Guillory Gilmer
Posted by Roxanne Wieman on March 13, 2008 | Comments (2)
Food, Culture, and True Communion
March 11, 2008 |
Sometimes I am reticent to invite people over for dinner. I wish I weren’t, but I am. This is why: I am tired of people talking about their personal food preferences. Any given day, I can easily list off several friends or acquaintances who are following some sort of individualized diet—weight loss or not. There’s the standard vegetarians, vegans, all types of intolerances, simple likes and dislikes, and now, the winner of the Oxford University Press Word of the Year 2007, “Localvore.” Localvores are people who eat only food produced within a hundred-mile radius of their home.
Funny thing: I’m kind of a localvore. My husband and I own a share in a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm, own another share of a dairy herd, and purchase meat from local farmers. But when I go out, I keep my localvore locked in my house.
Why? Because I love communion.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on March 11, 2008 | Comments (9)
Food for Thought
March 10, 2008 |
Somewhere in the demanding schedule there must be a place for becoming refreshed in spirit. As important as it is to be recognized for what we do, there must be a time—regularly—for the sweeter experience of being loved just for who we are.
Continue reading...Posted by Bonnie McMaken on March 10, 2008 | Comments (3)
My Night with Dennis Quaid
March 7, 2008 |
There I sat, scarfing down oily-popcorn, with my eyes bugging open as I starred at the giant screen. Dennis Quaid, playing a secret service agent, was barreling down a Spanish street in a snazzy car as he chased down the bad guys. My adrenaline was pumping, my teeth were chomping, my ears were ringing from the sound effects—and I finally had a smile on my face.
See, it had been a really tough two weeks for me. My children had both been sick with influenza and digestive problems (I’ll spare you the gross details) and I’d been completely homebound for 15 days. Night after night of my husband and I getting up with the kids was really wearing on me. I was behind on my work. I was stressed out. I was beginning to feel truly depressed.
I knew that I wasn’t just feeling “down.” This was different. I was in a persistent funk and it was beginning to weigh heavily. I felt completely unmotivated to do anything. I hadn’t been to church at all, hadn’t picked up my Bible, and had hardly prayed (beyond entreating God to please make my kids’ medication work). I felt sad, stressed out, and very discouraged.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on March 7, 2008 | Comments (2)
Synergy 2008 Workshop Tracks
March 6, 2008 |
We are confident the workshops will be a high point of your conference experience. We offer three workshop tracks that will run concurrently during three different sessions on Saturday; check our Schedule for the exact times. These cutting-edge, forward-thinking, interactive workshops will be 1.5 hours each. Click here for full details.
You will have an opportunity to register for the three workshops you want to attend at Registration and also before the conference.
WORKSHOP TRACKS
Academic
Leadership Interests
Writing
Posted by Roxanne Wieman on March 6, 2008 | Comments (0)
Synergy 2008 Registration Information
March 5, 2008 |
Single Registration: US $195
Team Rate: US $175 per person—minimum 5 people
To register, click on this link: Online Registration
You will be re-directed to the Campus Crusade Conference Registration Tool where you will be required to set up a Login Profile with a password before you can proceed to register.
Posted by Roxanne Wieman on March 5, 2008 | Comments (0)
Deferring to God
March 4, 2008 |
It’s four o’clock and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has just begun visiting hours as Alice Rouse, a 31-year-old outreach worker for Starlight Ministries of the Emmanuel Gospel Center is buzzed through the doors of the ICU. Today her friend Adam began his 17th birthday by shooting China White, the purest form of heroin, and then stringing himself up in the shower with a bed sheet.
Adam is paralyzed with sedatives after a recent attempt to pull out his tubes and IV, but as Alice approaches his bed, he smiles and whispers, “finally.” She has brought her guitar and will play “It is Well with My Soul,” same as last year when she and Adam were here for the same reason. As she leaves the hospital, she weeps for him, for the familiarity of that stark scene, for the long road of recovery they have in front of them. A week later he’s discharged and calls Alice in a rage, “I’ve been locked up in the hospital for days and will forever hate you for not visiting!” Alice explains that he must not remember, that there were sedatives, but she’s making little progress because Adam is already hurt. She hangs up the phone and shrugs.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on March 4, 2008 | Comments (12)
Synergy: The Vision
March 4, 2008 |
As an organization, Synergy is committed to the following...
VISION
To see women wholeheartedly following Christ and partnering with their Christian brothers and each other to build His Kingdom.
MISSION
To connect, equip, and encourage women in vocational ministry to be effective leaders and laborers for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Posted by Roxanne Wieman on March 4, 2008 | Comments (0)
Food for Thought
March 3, 2008 |
[Deborah] also sang the praises of those who served her well—“My heart is with Israel's princes, with the willing volunteers among the people” (Judges 5:9)—and she commended Jael at length, calling her “most blessed of tent-dwelling women” (Judges 5:24). A final leadership lesson from Deborah: Acknowledge the efforts of others, rather than pat yourself on the back.
Continue reading...Posted by Bonnie McMaken on March 3, 2008 | Comments (1)
