Dr Paul Allen

Over the years I watched a number of people come and go through the doors of the church . In our mobile, vagabond, anchorless time, people move from job to job, city to city, and church to church. Given the mobility of a culture, say in comparison with a generation ago when a person might work for one company in the same city and live in the same house for his entire life, people move around. So there were some who left the church because of job transfers. In fact, I had a stretch where more than a dozen families relocated because of job transfers over a two-year period. Most of the time I could understand the job relocation. The situation, for the life of me, that I simply have never understood were the families that left the church because their children were not happy. I can remember sitting before a number of families over the years who would come to me, “Pastor, we really love the church and find the preaching to be edifying . . .” On the heels of such a statement, I could hear...

Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia DR Congo: Marie-Paul Kimakosa lost much of her family to the LRA (Photo credit: Oxfam International ) Image via Wikipedia Or, how should we respond to "bad guys?" A couple of days ago Scott and I watched the KONY 2012 video made by Invisible Children . I wasn't entirely comfortable with the message and methods, but like millions of other people I shared it forward in fb as a thought-provoking piece that draws attention to African children. I only watched it once. In the last 48 hours this video has exploded across social media, and because we lived in Uganda for 17 years a few people have asked me what I think. So here goes some reflections on a sunny Friday morning in Kenya , far from those front lines (but close enough to many others that this won't be a well-researched long-pondered post, but like all of them, simply personal immediate reflections from my heart). First, what I LIKE about Invisible Children. Eight ...