Innie or Outie? The Externally-Focused Church

Are you an "innie" or an "outie?"  I'm not talking about your navel, though it is sort of related.  Instead, I am referring to a life-or-death "posture of the heart" for churches and church people.  When it comes to matters of faith, is your heart "internally-focused?"  Or "externally-focused?" 

Warning: Bible Reading Can Be Dangerous To Political Stereotypes

Nearly everyone I know has a Bible, in fact, usually several Bibles.  I also know a lot of people who believe that the Bible tells us what we need to know about God and life.  I know some people who even have pretty firm convictions about God and life with Bible verses to back them up.  But the number of people I know who actually read the Bible in a systematic way - reading regularly, reading full passages rather than just favorite verses, and reading to let God "speak" to their life in what they read - is actually fairly small.

No need to point the finger here.  Just look at how much of the Bible you have read without commentary in the past three days.

A recent article in Christianity Today, based on research by Baylor University and  LifeWay Research identified some unexpected outcomes on beliefs and behaviors for people who read the Bible regularly.  It's worth reading and pondering the entire article - Click Here To Do That - but here are some highlight statements I have gleaned from the larger article.

Women in Ministry: Redefining the Disagreements

I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated of late with the way conversations about the role of women in ministry seem to play out.  I often find myself closer to some of the people I disagree with than with some of the people I supposedly agree with.  What’s going on here?!?