Articles published in the monthly Together in Prayer newsletter.
I relish Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians – the most personal and poignant of Paul’s wonderful epistles, it seems to me. I relish chapter one. All the promises of God, Paul reports ecstatically, find their “Yes!” in Jesus (v.20). … (read more)
For more than a century, the Christian church around the world has dedicated a week in January to prayer for Christian unity. I have often participated myself. This year the effort seems especially relevant. Our own nation is as fractured … (read more)
When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. (Luke 2:17,18, NIV) There are a few experiences … (read more)
The Incarnation is so very many things. There are so many other things, of course, that it is not. The Incarnation, in particular, is about God become a human being – and not the other way around. The Incarnation is … (read more)
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)
In October our Home Council voted to approve an increase in monthly missionary allowances, which will go into effect on January 1, 2015. Paragraph 39 of the Mission Handbook explains a little about our philosophy on missionary allowances: The Mission’s … (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)
I recently read that a well-known restaurant chain reported $1.7 million in earnings for one year, from gift cards that were purchased but never used. The financial report referred to this as “gift card breakage.” That was amazing to me. Nearly two million dollars were … (read more)
In July we paid our missionaries 100 percent of their target allowance. This marked the 24th consecutive month in which full allowances were paid, overseas and in the Home Office. This is the longest period of “full allowance” during my … (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)