You’ve seen this situation before: A beloved pastor of many years has gone and now there’s a new pastor. The congregation is finding it hard to readjust. Even small changes in direction feel threatening. There is uncertainty about where the church is going. What will...
In conversation with my colleague and professor of Psychology at Texas A&M, Dr. Charles Ridley, we talked about what really gets in the way of personal discipleship growth and process. There are many types of impasses—blind spots, assumptions, patterns,...
Today’s entry is by guest blogger Dr. Charles R. Ridley. I quaked. Whenever I neared her classroom, fear and trepidation besieged me. My reaction was autonomic, full of annoying emotions I could not control. Whenever she called on another student, I breathed a...
An outward focus means looking outside the walls of your own church. It means being more concerned about reaching out and meeting the needs of the community around you than you are about the level of comfort inside the church. For most churches, it’s much easier to...
You may have heard of the fight or flight response. When we feel threatened, we either flee or we lash out. Fight and flight are two sides of the same coin– anger and fear. But there is a third option: fight, flight, or freeze. Freeze, in this case, means...
