joeskillen

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When I Rise Podcast Patreon Project

I announced on a special episode today that I’m launching a fundraising effort to accomplish two things:

develop the podcast

dig a water well through Charity: water

If you’d like to join in the effort, head on over to my Patreon page!

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Skillen Family News

Here is a quick news update from the Skillen family.

On November 10th, I shared with Advent Presbyterian Church that our family would be leaving the Memphis area at the end of the year and will be relocating to our hometown Wichita, KS. In Wichita, I’ll be joining the Eastminster Presbyterian Church staff as an Assistant Pastor. Pastor Stan shared the news with Eastminster this past week.

This…

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Technique Thursday: Yes and No

Technique Thursday: Yes and No

I came across a book that had a helpful perspective on creating and advancing one’s life mission or company vision. Reinventing Yourself by Steve Chandler has many great tidbits for one to consider. One that I found helpful was where one can find a “yes.”

Chandler suggests that “yes” (the sale, the affirmation, the solution that works, etc…) is always found within the “no” (the rejection, the…

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Text Tuesday: Justice

Justice is an explosive word in our culture. Some people on left claim that justice evades certain people groups in our society while some on the right claim that the word is being used to liberally. I once heard a political commentator suggest that if a church goers preacher uses the term “social justice,” you should go to worship elsewhere.

Well… justice is a big, biblical idea.

Probably…

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Technique Thursday: Deep Work

Technique Thursday: Deep Work

Malcolm Gladwell suggests that it takes 10,000 hours to master anything. Which sounds pretty daunting for anyone, right? Where can I squeeze 10,000 hours for that all-important thing that I’d like to enjoy or master or be known for before I die?

Well, if we can break it down to a weekly goal, it might be more feasible than we can imagine.

The trick, it seems, is to try to carve out what is known…

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Wright or Willard Wednesday: Apologetics

Wright or Willard Wednesday: Apologetics

Dallas Willard passed away on May 8th, 2013. Truly a sad day for many in the Christian world. Dallas was in the midst of writing a book on apolgetics (defense of the faith) as he was passing. The book was completed posthumously and reveals many of his intellectual claims for the Christian faith. You can buy this book on Amazon. I highly recommend.

Here is a section of the where Dallas shares…

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Text Tuesday: Hypocrite

Matthew’s gospel mentions the term hypocrite (hypokrites) 13 times. Wow! That’s an alarming amount of times for one, particular term. Let’s take a deeper dive.

A “hypocrite” was an actor who would wear a mask in Greek plays to portray two characters, or one character that acted in two different ways, who pretends to be one way and is really the opposite. The term was then used in ethics…

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Technique Thursday: Memory Palace

Technique Thursday: Memory Palace

About four years ago, colleague of mine suggested that I preach without notes. “You barely look at the ones you have with you,” she said.

So I took the leap. It was terrifying and exhilarating, at the same time. I haven’t looked back sense then.

I have a bare bones outline with me in case our technology goes down mid-sermon because I still rely on our projection screen for long quotations.

This…

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Wright or Willard Wednesday: Paul, Exile, and Jesus of Nazareth

Wright or Willard Wednesday: Paul, Exile, and Jesus of Nazareth

Today’s Wright or Willard Wednesday is from NT Wright’s big book on Paul: Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

In this passage, Wright is beginning to sketch how Paul as a 2nd Temple Jew, shaped his early letters. Here, Wright shares how Jesus fulfills Israel’s longing for a God who returns to them; he is not a god that ascends into a pantheon of gods like the wider Greco-Roman audience might expect:

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Text Tuesday: Owe

One of the interesting categories in Scripture is the array of metaphors used to describe sin. Both sin against God and sin against one another. The dominant metaphor in the New Testament material is debt. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see NT authors use debt, obligation, payment in their material.

The verb “to owe” in the New Testament Greek (opheilo) “conveys an idea of being in debt or…

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Technique Thursday: 5 Minutes

Technique Thursday: 5 Minutes

I listened to a summary of Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Formula earlier this week. A couple of key points from the book have lingered with me. One of which I shared with someone during a counseling appointment this week. So, I thought I’d share it here, too.

When faced with a difficult moment, Elrod suggests setting a 5:00 timer and allowing yourself to feel the weight, difficulty, and grief of the…

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Wright or Willard Wednesday: Jesus’ Death

Wright or Willard Wednesday: Jesus’ Death

How about this one from NT Wright’s “Big Red,” The New Testament and the People of God:

Jesus seems to have believed himself to be the focal point of the real returning-from-exile people, the true kingdom-people; but that kingdom, that people and this Messiah did not look like what the majority of Jews expected. Jesus was summoning his hearers to a different way of being Israel. We now have to…

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Text Tuesday: Guarantee

The New Testament word for “guarantee” (Greek arrabon) has a peculiar meaning. I’m not sure what you think of when someone gives you a guarantee, but it is usually a verbal promise of some sort.

In the biblical world, a guarantee would usually be accompanied by a pledge, or a token, portion of the whole of the item promised. In the OT, a pledge was given by Judah (in a really *cough* complicated…

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Technique Thursday: 10, 10, 10

Technique Thursday: 10, 10, 10

While reading David Brooks’ The Second Mountain, he shared (in an off-handed comment) a device that he uses for making personal decisions.

In the most significant decisions in his life, Brooks employs a 10, 10, 10 filtering system.

Let’s give it a try. Think of your most pressing decision that you have in front of you. Think of what decision you think you should make.

Imagine what life will be…

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Wright or Willard Wednesday: Conversion

Wright or Willard Wednesday: Conversion

Here’s another ditty from Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy. Willard is giving reference to the provocative appeal that Jesus and his early followers gave to the watching world around them.

The life and words that Jesus brought into the world came in the form of information and reality. He and his early associates overwhelmed the ancient world because they brought into it a stream of life at its…

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Text Tuesday: Engulfed

I am away from my office desk and without Mounce’s text for this week’s Text Tuesday post. Instead, I am working on sermons for the remainder of our Jonah series this month.

As I work through Jonah 2, I’m struck by the language in Jonah’s prayer. Verse 5 says,

“The engulfing waters threatened me,

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around my head.”

Jonah uses a familiar term “engulfed”…

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Share The Best Stuff

Share The Best Stuff

Here is my daughter, Avery (10), crushing Latin homework on a Thursday morning and enjoying the “Pink Drink” from Starbucks.

On a visit to Starbucks, Avery usually gets one of three drinks, the Pink Drink being one of them.

From the backseat of the car, Avery exclaimed, “This is the best Pink Drink I’ve had!”

She would know. She gets them all of the time.

The next thing she did stunned me. Avery…