“More than just building a tower, the people of Babel wanted to build a reputation for themselves. They wanted others to recognize their intelligence and skill and to admire them. Abraham, on the other hand, didn’t seem that interested in making a name for himself. He was happy to follow God, to obey God’s calling, and to entrust his reputation to God. God took care of Abraham’s reputation and made his name great.”
Author: James Petticrew
Rev. James Petticrew is a Scottish pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. He is Senior Pastor of Westlake Church-Nyon in Switzerland. He and his wife, Ann, have two grown children.
James Petticrew ~ Our Greatest Leadership Challenge of the New Year
I have often thought when hearing of another nose-dive from ministry, “not him?” but underlying that has been a naive attitude that has assumed that it won’t ever be me.
James Petticrew ~ Gaudete
Yesterday was the third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday; “gaudete” is Latin for “rejoice.” Even a cursory reading of the Bible reveals that joy and rejoicing are an inevitable overflow in the lives of people who have understood and experienced God at work in their lives.
James Petticrew ~ Holy Tenacity
Note from the Editor: This week at Wesleyan Accent, as we scan, with grief, ongoing news from seeker-sensitive Protestant megachurches and Roman Catholic dioceses,…
James Petticrew ~ Why I Can’t Give Up on Church
There are some things that I know I should believe with my head, but I struggle because I don’t experience them in my heart.
James Petticrew ~ Passion for Pentecost
But without the empowering presence of God’s Holy Spirit, according to Wesley, all we have is a dead religiosity.
James Petticrew ~ Kodak, Hirsch, and the Future of the Church
I doubt there is a more used and less understood word in the contemporary church than “missional.” Missional is not about being better at being Kodak in a digital photograph world.
James Petticrew ~ Money, Money, Money
The danger of our silence is that if we ignore the subject of money, both the mission of the Kingdom of God and the spirituality of God’s people will ultimately be impoverished.
James Petticrew ~ Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It
I love that concept, that whenever we pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are committing ourselves as Christ followers and churches to fashioning foretastes of the world to come in the here and now.
James Petticrew ~ The 7 Works of Corporal Mercy (or How Jesus Evaluates the Ministry of His Church)
The more I read those words and reflected on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 the more it struck me that the Seven Works of Corporal Mercy are not an anachronistic relic of the Medieval church but constitute a very effective evaluation tool for the contemporary church.