Mike Leake

The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.  -Proverbs 18:17 I’m not an expert counselor.  But I hope I am growing.  Early on in my ministry I dealt almost exclusively with counseling teenagers.  As one in my early twenties and still  with plenty of youthful vigor (or perhaps rebellion) in my heart I listened intently as teenagers would tell me about how much they were victimized by their parents. It is much to my chagrin that I confess that for the first year or two I really thought that these kids had horrible parents that simply did not … [Read more...] about Don’t Proxy Counsel

Pastor Mark Driscoll* tweeted this last week: That he is no fan of bloggers is no secret. He’s been known in the past to be quick to use his sharp wit to lampoon the critical blogger. I realize also that by responding to him I am probably becoming one of those “pontificating” bloggers that he so disdains. Fair enough, but I thought this might serve as a decent opportunity to share the benefit of blogging. On one hand I totally agree with Pastor Mark. Pontificating about what others are doing while doing nothing yourself can be very annoying. There is no doubt that one of the negative … [Read more...] about Blogging Can Be Doing, a Response to @PastorMark

For the last two days I’ve noted a potential pitfall to spiritual gifts testing.  (See here and here).  Though I think there are dangers to spiritual gifts testing I do believe they can be beneficial.  As I mentioned yesterday, our church does a 3 in 1 profile that considers personality as well as spiritual gifts.  Such tools can be helpful to the body in these ways: If a foot thinks it is a hand you’ve got problems.  Though I’d rather have two hands and a confused foot that thinks its a hand over zero hands, I’d much rather have hands and feet do what they were created to do.  Gifts … [Read more...] about The Benefit of Spiritual Gifts Testing

Yesterday I noted that one reason I’m not a huge fan of spiritual gifts testing is because the church at Rome did not have Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.  That’s another way of saying that I do not think the early church did ministry according to perceived spiritual giftedness but instead their overarching paradigm was to be united servants of Jesus and that looked different for different people. Okay, so maybe spiritual gifts aren’t quite what the early church did.  They also didn’t have electricity, microphones, padded seats or VBS.  You won’t find those things in the Bible but the … [Read more...] about The Other Reason I’m Not a Huge Fan of Spiritual Gifts Testing

Ready for it? Here it is: The church at Rome did not have Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Take a gander at the list in Romans 12:6-8.  Now look at 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 and 12:28.  Different list isn’t it?  Now we in the 21st century have the advantage of going through all of these various spiritual gifts listed by the apostles and in then compiling a handy list of all the spiritual gifts in the Bible. Once you have the list of these gifts you ask people various questions to find out what they are passionate about and then you match their passions and experiences with the biblical … [Read more...] about One Reason I’m Not a Huge Fan of Spiritual Gifts Testing

Do you ever hear something that you know is wrong but you cannot quite put your finger on it?  Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you knew you disagreed but you could not put your finger on what exactly the difference was?  I think I may have figured out what rubs me the wrong way so often in Christian circles.  We have a way of sounding biblical, looking Christian, speaking of Jesus while somehow subverting the gospel. Take for instance notes I found from a conference on tackling fear, worry, and anxiety.  It starts with the basics.  It is theologically sound on who God … [Read more...] about Gospel-Sounding Legalism

I love watching Bob Ross paint his happy little trees.  However, on occasion Bob will do something that really bothers me emotionally.  What almost killed me was that Ross would paint a very intricate and beautiful mountain, or a bunch of happy little trees on a mountain ridge and then…I’m getting all worked up remember it…he would practically destroy the thing by putting a big fat tree that covers almost everything he just painted.  For a solid 10 minutes I’d sit there shocked and quivering and not able to enjoy my Fruit Loops while I watched this afro-wearin’ painter make something … [Read more...] about God’s Happy Little Trees

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. In Joel’s day (and even still today) a sign of great mourning and grief was to tear your garments.  It wasn’t that they’d bust out into Hulk Hogan’s “I’m a Real American Hero” and rip up their camel-haired cloaks to shreds.  It was usually a slit from bottom to top that indicated deep … [Read more...] about Rend Your Hearts Not Your Facebook Statuses

“Nikki!  What in the world are you doing?  You can’t do that!”  I gently said to my dear wife. She had just committed an unpardonable sin in my home of origin.  She…are you ready for my unveiling of her dastardly crime…she…left a…spoon…in our leftovers…and…oh the humanity!…put said bowl and spoon…in the refrigerator!!! Apparently, she is hell bent on killing our entire family.  At least that is the way that I was raised to think.  Nikki in tears of laughter—or maybe pain, I never can tell—informed me that this little spoon rule was nothing more than an old wives tale.  I think she also … [Read more...] about Spoons in Your Fridge

It is no secret that marriages are under attack in our world.  This is not surprising since marriage is a visible picture of Christ and His Church, what better place for the forces of hell to aim their fiery darts.  In response to this our church tries to have at least 2 marriage conferences per year (with hopes of having more).  As such I have been tasked with using several resources and putting together a curriculum for the conference. Our very first session is What is Marriage?  In this session we attempt to come together on a theology of marriage.  We begin by defining marriage.  As far … [Read more...] about Marriage Defined