Here is yet another way we get our callings wrong. We think them rare, or heroic, or extraordinary. We think them exceptional, somehow unique, almost beyond belief. Like winning the lottery, maybe. Or coming down with an unusual, life-changing disease. … (read more)
There are so many ways to get missionary callings wrong. One of the most common, as I mentioned last month, is to suppose that we are called to go somewhere and to do some thing, first of all. Well, no, … (read more)
A few weeks ago we completed our annual Missionary Candidates’ Briefing Course. Fifteen candidates and missionary inquirers from here and there around the country (and a few from elsewhere in the world) gathered at our offices on Clifton Avenue. We … (read more)
When I was growing up my family of six shared a two bedroom house on a corner. It was the first house my parents ever bought. The basement flooded every spring when the rains came. For a time all four … (read more)
“Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” – Luke 5:10b When Jesus called Simon to follow him, he was calling an ordinary man to an impossible task. In some gospel accounts it appears that Jesus walked up … (read more)