As we recognize that Christ is all – even outside our own box of biases, giftings and sensibilities – we begin to experience the fulness of Christ.
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Sufficient Grace, Part III
May 23, 2012
1 Comment
As I learn to adjust to the reality of diminished capacity, I’m seeing God prompt people who I’ve invested my life into and mentored in the Lord. Others are now step forward – without me asking – to fill the voids. This, to me, has been the most precious affirmation of God’s grace,
Read more Fathers and Teachers
May 11, 2012
6 Comments
Fathers (and mothers!) in the faith are compelled to help others be more than themselves and to exceed their own understanding and experiences.
Read more “Us” and “Them”
May 9, 2012
12 Comments
The real Body of Christ is an inclusive “us” – you and me. It is not a divisive “us” verses “them”. Rather, we find grace as we submit one to another by esteeming each other in our differences.
Read more Is There Not a Cause?
May 2, 2012
8 Comments
Forgive us, Lord, for wanting only you and not also your Kingdom…
Read more The Fierceness of God
April 21, 2012
12 Comments
The Apostle Paul wasn’t persecuted and eventually killed for loving Jesus, but because that love made him confront and do things that upended the cultural, religious, economic and civil systems of his day. Some popular Christian authors insist today, however, that believers must refrain from such engagement.
Read more Holy Ghost Church in the County Jail
March 26, 2012
3 Comments
I don’t want to shake up anyone’s theology, but the Holy Spirit was grooving to some powerful, spontaneous rappin’ that was going on!
Read more Outside the Box
March 20, 2012
3 Comments
Yes, Christ can be found in the box. But He does His best work, I’ve found, apart from and outside the box.
Read more Modern Day Pauls?
March 17, 2012
18 Comments
Beware of gifted but itinerant men and women who want to “help” your local church as modern-day Paul’s, but lack roots in, commission from and accountability to another functioning local church.
Read more The Great Commission
March 12, 2012
10 Comments
The newly touted idea that “ekklesia” (the Greek word translated “church” in the New Testament) and the Great Commission are at odds is itself odd.
Read more Probation’s Ban on Church Attendance
March 10, 2012
0 Comments
An appeal for help in reversing the local probation office’s de facto ban on church attendance in Prince William County, Virginia.
Read more Becoming Our Past
February 26, 2012
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Often, longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds are like old, familiar friends. We let them become so engrained into our sense of identity that they begin to define us.
Read moreBeyond Evangelical? – A Follow Up
February 24, 2012
3 Comments
Two days after I posted my series “Beyond Evangelical?”, Milt Rodriguez – who I took to task in that series – wrote his own blog which helps close the gap, so to speak, that I was addressing. Here’s some follow-up thoughts.
Read more Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
February 22, 2012
15 Comments
A challenge to my “Beyond Evangelical” brethren: If you are not called to something, don’t discredit those who are. Trying to say we must be like you is narcissism – a key characteristic of post-modernity – at its worst. In essence, it’s trying to impose on others a Jesus created in your own image.
Read more True Leadership
February 10, 2012
2 Comments
What is the true measure of leadership in the Body of Christ?
Read more Jesus at the Fringes
February 4, 2012
9 Comments
It’s amazing how Jesus takes root in the fringes of society when you empower Christ in folks rather than trying to bring “church” to them, take them to “church” or do “church” for them.
Read more The Priesthood of All Believers
January 23, 2012
6 Comments
Then how is it, brothers? When you come together, ONLY ONE of you can have a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, a revelation, an interpretation….
Read more A Multilingual Jesus
January 16, 2012
2 Comments
God speaks to some subjectively, and to others objectively, and each often forgets that Jesus is multilingual.
Read more Planting Churches
January 3, 2012
8 Comments
I’m not sure why we make planting churches so complicated. It really isn’t. Here’s a recent story from the local jail.
Read more Room at the Inn
December 24, 2011
0 Comments
This Christmas, the question yet remains: Is there still no room at the inn? Take a chance. Embrace the Joseph’s and Mary’s of our age.
Read more Ekklesia as Escapism
December 19, 2011
13 Comments
Too often, we say it’s all about Jesus, when in reality we create Jesus in our own image – shaped by our hurts from the wrongs we have suffered – and use Him to justify our safely-ensconced retreat into self-constructed cocoons.
Read more The Mythology of Tithing
November 26, 2011
43 Comments
In the 13th century, an increasingly complex and self-serving ecclesiastical hierarchy started to adopt the Old Testament tithe to fund their huge cathedrals and support other unbiblical prerogatives they were increasingly assuming for themselves.
Read more Old Covenant Church
November 25, 2011
10 Comments
Why are most churches Old Covenant, rather than New Covenant?
Read more The Road to Grace
November 21, 2011
11 Comments
For the religious, the road to grace is the toughest journey they’ll ever face. But slowly, I’m finally starting to find it.
Read more Ordained to Fail
November 16, 2011
17 Comments
Those who take on the mantle of “Pastor” are operating within a framework, and on assumptions and traditions, that God never ordained.
Read more A Hollow Gospel
November 14, 2011
34 Comments
Broken lives and real people are inconvenient and demand more than your hollow gospel and podium-oriented focus can give. But praise God, you have great meetings!
Read more The Question of Leadership
October 31, 2011
4 Comments
We do it all backwards. We expect fellowship to emerge from leaders. In God’s providence, leaders emerge from fellowship.
Read more Going Organic
October 27, 2011
4 Comments
Going to enjoy a sermon and the worship team in an institutional church is like going to McDonald’s, while forming community and participating in organic church is like cultivating and enjoying a healthy, wonderful garden.
Read more Crossing Jordan
October 24, 2011
5 Comments
For many who leave the institutional church, there is a season where we react to things not out of freedom, but rather out of not wanting to to be like the institutional church. When we remain in a reactive mode, however, we remain in bondage to our institutional church experiences.
Read more I Saw Satan Fall
October 20, 2011
1 Comment
Confession, forgiveness and repentance have become forgotten ordinances that we have twisted into ineffective spiritual abstractions. As a result, most churches have lost the ability to meaningfully administer those graces today.
Read more Starve the Beast
October 17, 2011
0 Comments
People are cutting back as they see how their tithes and offerings are typically misused by churches. It seems that folks are fed up with all the money grubbing for ego-buildings, staff who are increasingly detached from real ministry, and life-sucking programs that don’t really advance the Kingdom of God.
Read more Narcissists with Power
October 9, 2011
3 Comments
I’ve finally come to realize that the most dangerous people, and the most charming, are narcissists with power.
Read more Tidy Whitey
September 28, 2011
0 Comments
Why is it that white, middle-class suburban Christians persist in acting as though God is white, middle-class suburban?
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Beauty from Ashes
September 9, 2011
0 Comments
I take on pastoral sex abuse cases not only because I believe in justice, but because I also believe in redemption. Often, I have the privilege of seeing God’s grace shine through as healing comes and the survivors begin to find the strength to reclaim their lives – and their stolen voices.
Read moreAbuse, Church, Grace, Gratetude, Healing, Justice, Mercy, Pain, Redemption, Woundedness
Jim Wright
Church sower, mentor, teacher, foe of tyrants, friend of the dispossessed, Christian, thinker, author, attorney, entrepreneur, pilot and so-so bass fisherman.According to the internet tracking service Networked Blogs, Crossroad Junction is among the top 100 blogs worldwide on "Christianity", among the top 100 on "faith", and also among the top 100 blogs on "culture".
As a friend said on Facebook, "I don't write things people need to know. I share things. If people care, they comment." I invite you to care.
I have nothing to sell, and nothing to peddle (not even myself!), but I love to hear from folks. You can contact me at Fulcrum Ministries.
Let’s Connect
- The Mythology of Tithing
- A Hollow Gospel
- Participatory Church
- Rethinking Missions
- Sufficient Grace
- Modern Day Pauls?
- Ordained to Fail
- Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
- Pimping the Gospel
- Does Jesus Want You to Vote?
- God in a Box
- Sufficient Grace, Part III
- Fathers and Teachers
- Peeking Through the Cracks
- “Us” and “Them”
- Is There Not a Cause?
- Millennials and Old Farts
- The Fierceness of God
- Sufficient Grace, Part II
- Inside Out
- Jim Wright: Thank you, Constantine. I agree....
- Constantine: Greetings from the suffering Athens, Greece. I...
- Jim Wright: A box is how we limit Christ to our own attitudes,...
- Ockert van der Westhuysen: I am curious about the 'legalism', which I don't q...
- Rob Kampen: Too often (always?) our view of who God really is,...
- Jim Wright: Esther, the points in my blog go "beyond" (no pun ...
- Esther: Hi! I haven't commented here before, but this pos...
- Barbara Alsip: This is good, Jesus wants us to be one absolutely,...
- Eli: brilliant, great challenge and encouragement. i ho...
- Janet Maxim: To look for Christ in others, rather than analyzin...
