Kurt Willems's Blog

• 4 Minute Read

Logos. Logos. Logos.

For years, you were this companion on my computer that intimidated me. Truly. 

Then, just when I needed you, I started using your sermon tools and understanding your features. 

Eventually, you proved your value at a whole new level when I wrote my final paper for grad school. The ability to quickly access ancient sources, follow academic rabbit trails, and to keep things organized: this made me a better researcher. 

But what about now with the release of Logos Bible Software version 10?

I believe that it is THE tool for creating and delivering better sermons. 

If you’ve followed my journey over the years, you might recall that I spent 8 years in Seattle working with a church planting effort. During that season, which including time researching at the University of Washington (MA Comp. Relig.), I started to use Logos in an “on again, off again” way for preparing sermons. 

Then, a little over a year ago, our family made the “big move” to Calgary, Alberta—just over 4 hours north of western Montana. I now serve as lead pastor at a church called Brentview, located a couple of blocks from the University of Calgary. We LOVE IT here! 

Logos 10 in Ministry

From week one, I knew that I wanted to start my new season of ministry with a clean way to prepare and log all of my sermons. Thus, Logos is now my sole sermon preparation and presentation space. 

Logos 9 was the version that I had when I started. And while I loved it, there are a several updated features in Logos 10—all of which make sermon preparation better! 

Allow me to share about a few of the best ones.

#1 Print Library Search Feature!

This is making the Bible-nerd internet go a bit bonkers. Rightfully so.

If a book exists in the Logos system, but I own it already in print, Logos allows me to use its high-powered search features to find key terms by page number!

And let’s be honest: How many of us have been doing something similar with Amazon’s “preview” search features for years? But a key difference here is that you don’t have to depend on Amazon being “nice” now and you can depend on Logos to get you to the page in the book that you need—quickly! This feature alone makes it worth the upgrade.

To use this feature, you can actually use your smartphone’s camera to grab a favourite book from the shelf and san the barcode. And just like that, it lives in your Print Library—forever searchable as though you owned the Logos digital copy!

Here’s a bit more from Logos on utilizing the Print Library search:

#2 Quotes for Sermons

I’m not one to look for lots of quotes for sermons, but with this new feature I might be a tad more open to it. Basically, while working on a sermon you can click the “quotation marks” tab in the sermon info section. Then, type a key term and the database finds unique quotes that match up with your search term. I’ll show you a quick example of this here:

#3 Logos is Faster and Smoother 

A program like Logos is “beefy” on any computer. It’s powerful which also means that there’s always been some level of lag. When I’ve used it over the years, I’d often have to wait out the ol’ “spinning wheel of death” while it loaded. No longer! 

On my MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip, Logos is smooth and stays out of the way of the information I’m searching for. According to Logos, since this version has native support for Apple Silicon, the estimated increase in performance can be between 10-40% (for those who have an M1 chip, specifically). Friends. Logos is finally a FAST experience for me. 

#4 Sermon Importer

This is also helpful: You can import your old sermons into Logos via a Word document (.docx). While this isn’t always going to be perfect, it is quite helpful for those who want Logos to host all of your sermons. 

This matters if you are looking for an old sermon illustration or want to double-check that you haven’t already told this or that story (ahem…. Yep. I’ve typed keywords in the sermon document search feature to make sure of this very thing multiple times.) It’s also convenient for those who want to be organized, generally speaking. 

Final Thoughts: Other Helpful Features

I wanted to say that there’s a few other features that  I appreciate when it comes to sermon preparation. 

Presentation Mode on my iPad is the most helpful way to present a Sermon (or lecture) that I’ve found. I never get lost in my notes on Sunday mornings. This mode also has a timer that is helpful for pacing purposes as well. 

Workflows are helpful for preparation. I am now doing all my preparation for sermons through a “Workflow” that I was able to edit for my particular needs. It’s creatively called, Kurt’s Sermon Workflow, and I walk through each sermon through its process. This helps me stay focused on what matters as I prepare and keeps all of my research in one place. 

So, in conclusion: I’m convinced that for many preacher and/or teacher types that Logos is a huge win. Logos 10 will help you create and deliver better sermons. 

Get a discount on Logos 10! 

 

The post Create and Deliver Better Sermons: Logos 10 Review appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• < 1 Minute Read
SUBSCRIBE VIA ITUNES | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE | STITCHER | AUDIBLE

Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain is available right now. It is a manifesto about how the life of Jesus offers hope as it intersects with the real pain of the world and in our lives. Email Kurt feedback as well!

In this episode, Kurt discusses spiritual formation and the love of God with Jonathan Puddle. This was personally a powerful experience. I felt the touch of the Spirit at several moments of our conversation. Get Jonathan’s book, You Are Enough: Learning to Love Yourself the Way God Loves You!

GIVE THE SHOW SOME LOVE

1) If you would be so kind to hop on iTunes (or your feed of choice) and leave Theology Curator a review there, that would be amazing. The more reviews we can get will lead to greater visibility in iTunes. And I (Kurt) LOVE reading your comments!

2) Also, please consider hitting up Theology Curator’s online tip-jar through Patreon (think Kickstarter for ongoing content creators). For $5 per month, or more, you can make a direct impact on this show. Financial partners like you really do make this all possible! Through Patreon, you make a tangible difference in this show’s sustainability and quality!

The post Jonathan Puddle: You are Enough [EP-133] appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• 4 Minute Read

You’ve been told that human life is rooted in the story of Genesis 3; God says that your true identity is found in Genesis 1.

Understandably, we often relate more to the Genesis 3 (“the fall”) part of the story.

Look at your newsfeed.
Look at your hurts.
Look at your life.

Each one of us can name at least one thing wrong with the world.
Likely, you’ve got more than one thing wrong in your life.

A friend is sick and may not make it.
A loved one is gone and will never come back this side of the resurrection.
You haven’t seen family in over a year due to the pandemic.
There are secrets in your heart and they are burning a hole deep within your spirit.
You struggle with physical limitations that most people don’t know about.
You have different sorts of limitations that some designate with a “label.”
A large portion of the population may see you as less than you are as God’s beloved image bearer.

So many other things may describe the wrongs you experience. This list isn’t even close to exhaustive.
Life is full of pain. It is full of hurts.

How Some of Us Hold What’s Wrong

Life is hard in a broken world like ours.

So, what do we do? We start with our experience of brokenness, something the Bible often calls “sin” (or the result of sin in the world).
Well, we …sort of… start with our brokenness. Let me explain.

The truth is, many of us are holding lots of pain but try not to be too “public facing” with it. We are the classic optimists or “re-framers.”
We lead with the rose-colored glasses sort of life.
It’s not only that we want to portray a “good life” to those who see us, but we want to believe that all of the mess isn’t for nothing.

Others might lead with all that is wrong in their lives. Perhaps for some, to re-frame what they’ve been dealt is unbearably optimistic.
Instead of a re-frame, these folks might prefer looking at life mostly through a broken frame.
There is an admirable realism to this pessimistic posture, but it can at times lack the intentionality to see something even more real than this sort “realism:” hope.

There are several other responses to pain and brokenness we could name.
These two examples, however, illustrate a point:

Optimists and pessimists are both using strategies to manage the same thing: the world we inhabit and the lives we experience are far from perfect.

We start with what’s wrong.

However, God doesn’t do that.
God doesn’t re-frame; God renews.
God doesn’t settle for a broken frame; God steps into the frame to make all things new.

God doesn’t start with what’s wrong; God starts with goodness.

What’s Wrong and How We Tell the Story

Pain and suffering is real. We need to acknowledge this in our lives and world.
However, the story we tell about God and the world often, wrongly, mirrors our own starting point.

We start with pain. We start with what is real to us: brokenness. But that is not how the Bible begins.

Many of us were brought up to believe that the story of God’s saving grace to our broken world begins something like this:

You are a human and therefore you are sinful. (Genesis 3)

Now, if you remember Genesis 3, it’s the story about how Eve and Adam chose to disobey God and thus, sin enters the story of our lives and world. (At least, this is how it is often described)
With Genesis 3 as a starting place, the conversation about the story of God then often moves to:

But there’s good news! Jesus can save you from your sins so that you can go to heaven when you die.

This version of “what’s wrong” and the story of how it is fixed makes sense (even if I think it is partially flawed).

My life is a mess. To be human is to be broken. (Genesis 3)Jesus can save me from a mess I will never be able to fix on my own! He will take me to heaven when I die so I can leave behind earth and my physical body!

Can you see why this version of the Story of God—with Genesis 3 as a starting place—has had so much traction over the years?

We start with what’s wrong. So then, we tell the story through this lens.

But imagine if it is So. Much. Better.

Where God Starts Your Story

What if the story really begins in Genesis 1? What if, as Genesis 1 teaches us, you and I—before anything else—are bearers of God’s divine image?

Simply put, we might say:

My life is a mess. True. But the story of God starts with a declaration that this world is “good” and human image-bearers are “very good.” To be human is to bear God’s image. (Genesis 1)The mess started as a result of human and demonic rebellion from God. But this is a distortion—not the essence—of what it means to be a human being. (Genesis 3-11)Jesus saves me for a life where I learn how to bear God’s image more fully. Jesus is fully human and shows me how to become more and more human like him—just as God intended for us from the very beginning!

In my book, Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain, I reflected on the connection of Jesus’ humanity to our own:

“Jesus shows us how to be human while also giving us a front-row seat to the heart and character of God. We see a God who becomes like us—in all humility and without sin. Jesus took on our nature so that we might take on his” (Echoing Hope, 34).

Jesus shows us how to return to the start of God’s story! God starts with the goodness of the world and the very goodness of human beings.
Yes, clearly sin has entered the picture.
But it—pain, sorrow, suffering, sin, evil, etc.—is not what defines us as human beings.
Sure, some suffering is redemptive—even holy at times. (For instance, suffering for Jesus.)

However, that is not how the story begins. We may start with our brokenness. But God doesn’t. God starts with goodness.
You are first and foremost a human being made in God’s image.

For the optimist: you don’t need a re-frame, you’re invited to step into reality—you are human and this is good news.
For the pessimist: you don’t need raw realism if it means that you miss out on a deeper and truer reality—you are human and this is good news.

May we start our story with God’s declaration that being human is very good news.
May we step into brokenness in a new way, rooted in the story of Jesus’ redeeming grace to guide us into our full humanity, as God intended for us from the beginning.

You’ve been told that human life is rooted in the story of Genesis 3; God says that your true identity is found in Genesis 1.

The post We Start with What’s Wrong, but God Starts with Goodness appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• < 1 Minute Read
SUBSCRIBE VIA ITUNES | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE | STITCHER | AUDIBLE

Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain is available right now. It is a manifesto about how the life of Jesus offers hope as it intersects with the real pain of the world and in our lives. Email Kurt feedback as well!

In this episode, Kurt discusses death and formation with Christiana Peterson. She is the author of Awakened by Death: Life Giving Lessons from the Mystics.

GIVE THE SHOW SOME LOVE

1) If you would be so kind to hop on iTunes (or your feed of choice) and leave Theology Curator a review there, that would be amazing. The more reviews we can get will lead to greater visibility in iTunes. And I (Kurt) LOVE reading your comments!

2) Also, please consider hitting up Theology Curator’s online tip-jar through Patreon (think Kickstarter for ongoing content creators). For $5 per month, or more, you can make a direct impact on this show. Financial partners like you really do make this all possible! Through Patreon, you make a tangible difference in this show’s sustainability and quality!

The post Spiritual Formation and Death with Christiana Peterson appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• < 1 Minute Read

SUBSCRIBE VIA ITUNES | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE | STITCHER | AUDIBLE

Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain is available right now. It is a manifesto about how the life of Jesus offers hope as it intersects with the real pain of the world and in our lives. Email Kurt feedback as well!

In this episode, Kurt chats with Phil Collins, the director of Taylor University’s Center for Scripture Engagement and the editor of the Abide Bible.

GIVE THE SHOW SOME LOVE

1) If you would be so kind to hop on iTunes (or your feed of choice) and leave Theology Curator a review there, that would be amazing. The more reviews we can get will lead to greater visibility in iTunes. And I (Kurt) LOVE reading your comments!

2) Also, please consider hitting up Theology Curator’s online tip-jar through Patreon (think Kickstarter for ongoing content creators). For $5 per month, or more, you can make a direct impact on this show. Financial partners like you really do make this all possible! Through Patreon, you make a tangible difference in this show’s sustainability and quality!

The post Favorite Spiritual Formation Bible! – The Abide Bible with Phil Collins appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• 3 Minute Read

Hi Friends!

First, thank you to all of you who have prayed for or supported me as I have recovered from spinal fusion surgery. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve had some complications that have slowed me down, but I’m definitely making progress.

Things have been crazy…..

I found out I was having surgery on March 1st. Echoing Hope, my first book, released on March 16th. Then, I had surgery on March 26th. It wasn’t the best timing, by any stretch! Yesterday, I shared about how I am doing in a video update. I’m hoping to re-engage my newsletter / podcast / social media community in the coming days, as I have energy to do so.

Book Club: The Belong Collective

Books clubs are forming around Echoing Hope. As I’m able, I’d love the chance to Skype/Zoom in for part of a session to join the conversation (more on that in a bit).

Also, I wanted to let you know that there is a great book club that is starting on May 26th at 4pm pacific / 7pm eastern.

My friends at The Belong Collective will be hosting a 4-week conversation about Echoing Hope via Zoom. And, since it is being hosted online, they’ve opened it up to anyone who is interested in joining the conversation.

 

Justin Douglas, the Lead Pastor at TBC, is a close friend and someone who loves Jesus and inspires others to do the same. I’m grateful for his church’s engagement with my book and hope you will join in the conversation.

Echoing Hope Stories and Feedback

As folks have had time to finish reading Echoing Hope, the feedback has been truly humbling. I’ve heard stories of tears of healing and hope being shed. If this includes you, honestly, to have the opportunity to be part of your journey from a distance is a gift. As you read, please send me your reflections on how the book (and Jesus) have impacted you.

For those of you who haven’t read it yet….

I hope you will! The earliest readers were those who offered kind endorsements. Here’s what a few of them said:

“Kurt Willems’s book provides an approachable framework for understanding and carrying pain in light of Jesus Christ. I loved the practical invitation to apply and practice his insights in our own lives through helpful formation exercises. Echoing Hope gives us something to hold on to in the midst of suffering.” (Sarah Bessey)

“Readers who hope for more from the gospel will be informed by and empowered by this generative rendering of the truth of Jesus.” (Walter Brueggemann)

“Now more than ever we need, Echoing Hope. We need enthusiastic reminders of Jesus’ humanity and his acquaintance with our vulnerabilities.” (Osheta Moore)

“Without resorting to worn-out clichés, Kurt Willems walks the reader through the problem of pain with the mind of a theologian and the heart of a pastor. This book will help many people.” (Brian Zahnd)

“Kurt Willems pastorally writes for the hurting and despairing, and lifts the eyes of the questioning, and points to the hope woven and soaked in the gospel. … Every pastor must have multiple copies of this book on their shelves to offer up to the hurting and despairing in their midst.” (Tara Beth Leach)

“This book is all about Jesus. It is the gospel according to Kurt Willems. Echoing Hope captures the paradox of the life of Jesus — we have a God who suffers so that suffering doesn’t get the final word. Jesus absorbs all the violence of the world to subvert it with love. In Jesus, God leaves all the comfort of heaven to joined the struggle here on earth. … It is a book about the enduring hope that God is with us… no matter how bad it gets.” (Shane Claiborne)

“Echoing Hope draws Jesus near – his humanity, his pain, and his purpose, without losing Jesus’ divinity in the process. Kurt brings his own stories of healing and hope to the feet of an accessible Jesus, so that readers can bring our own.” (Sean Palmer)

I’ll Join Your Book Club…

I hope you will consider joining this book club that The Belong Collective is graciously hosting!

Or, maybe you’ll be inspired to start your own book club. For those who form an official group (you meet multiple times, there’s a consistent group, etc), I want to offer to join in for part of a session for Q&A.

This, of course, depends on my schedule, but if you reach out to me, I’ll do what I can to accommodate. It not only gives me an excuse to talk about the book but it is a chance to meet more of you in a more personalized way!

Well, friends, thanks again for your support!

The post Back Surgery & Echoing Hope Book Clubs (I’ll join too) appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• 7 Minute Read

I recently released a book where I look at the topic of pain, joy, and Jesus. Writing Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain pushed me to reflect on the nature of suffering and how our narratives about God can sometimes create more harm than good.

I’m not writing this reflection in order to be provocative, or for the sake of being edgy. I have a strong conviction that words shape our imaginations. So, when we use a cliché to describe something complex, we easily minimize the gravity of the situation we are trying to describe.

And look, I get it: We all want “handles”—accessible ways to describe and/or understand the hard realities life brings us. I don’t fault this. At all. So we are all trying to figure this stuff out—there is always room for growth and I don’t claim to have this all figured out. And, in an article this size, I will only be able to scratch the surface on many of these topics. But hopefully it gets us into reflective mode so we can use our words with wisdom and grace.

Also, if these are slogans you’ve used recently, my words here are not aimed at judging you. Rather, I want to invite you to consider the impact of the words you use, even if the motive is pure (which I assume it usually is when matters of pain and suffering arise).

So, you have now entered a judgement free zone—so now we can have a productive conversation about certain phrases that we might want to consider purging from our lips.

The first…

#1 “Everything happens for a reason” OR “It is all part of God’s plan”

To make this claim is to basically say that God wants evil things to happen as part of some sort of “greater good.” Jesus challenges this assumption in a story found in Luke 13. Here, Jesus was told about how Pontius Pilate, a client ruler, had executed Galileans while they were sacrificing to God. I imagine those present had many questions about the nature of evil, which is likely why they wanted Jesus to comment on the situation.

In Luke 13:2, Jesus responded, “Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans?” He asked a similar question about “eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them” (verse 4). He answered both rhetorical questions with an emphatic “No . . . but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did” (verses 3, 5; this sort of change is translated as “repent” in most Bibles). I can imagine asking Jesus for his answers to the questions raised by 9/11, COVID-19, or drone strike victims. We have the same curiosities two thousand years later! Jesus, why?

Notice what Jesus did for us. It’s not the precise, scientific answer we might want. Instead, he said that evil happens and it isn’t because the victims did good or bad things. Pilate was a jerk, consumed by power. He was no friend to the Jewish people. He did something evil, and this wouldn’t be the last time. Later in Luke 13, Jesus healed a woman “bound by Satan for eighteen long years” (verse 16). Jesus shows us that human choices intersect with those of the spiritual powers of evil, creating the conditions for suffering—far beyond our ability to choose. There is a web of free will at work in the world—comprised of human choices, along with the choices of invisible beings such as angels and demons—which leaves humankind victim to evil every single day.

Everything doesn’t happen for a Divine reason. God wants nothing more than for the world to be free from evil and suffering. This is why Jesus came, to ultimately save us from our brokenness. We will one day experience the fullness of God’s ultimate plan, to bring heaven to earth and to rid our world of evil for eternity. Until then, things happen…but these aren’t always things God wants, causes, or wills to take place. Jesus, in his mercy, responds to evil with goodness. More on that in a bit.

#2 “God is in control”

God controls everything that happens—this is an assumption that we need to sit with a bit. From the onset, I want to be blunt: God could be in control if God wanted to be, but apparently God didn’t set up the world that way. As soon as you challenge the idea that God is in meticulous control of everything, many Christians are tempted to jump to the conclusion that the idea of God’s sovereign power is being attacked. But, as I’ll suggest, this isn’t the case. This reaction happens because the idea of God’s control is ingrained in some of us from a young age.

No matter where you fall on this theological debate, just for the sake of argument, let’s suspend the idea that God is orchestrating everything that happens. What might this mean? Our choices, then, become actual choices—not preprogramed into God’s software system for running the world. If free will is real—conditioned as it is by circumstances and cultural realities that shape us without our even knowing it—then these decisions are not controlled by God. For those who are open to it, God’s Spirit certainly is at work to influence us, but almost never to coerce us to choose a particular path.

God’s ultimate will shall come to pass. A day will come when Jesus will return to judge, purge, heal, resurrect, and renew all things. Until that day, God seems to allow free will to play out—intervening miraculously whenever it is possible without (usually) coercing circumstances (which might be key to understanding why God doesn’t always heal, etc.). (By the way: I go into more details on this point in Echoing Hope, chapter 4: “Why Suffering?”)

#3 “God’s ways aren’t our ways”

I’ve heard this phase many times. It’s based on this passage of Scripture:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

Here’s the problem: it isn’t that the Bible gets this wrong, but that we apply the Bible wrongly. Of course God’s wisdom, influence, and power are high above anything we humans could come up with. And of course, we need to think about these sorts of secondary issues with humility and the understanding that God is mysterious. But, that isn’t what most people mean when they use this slogan at a funeral or when reflecting on the poor condition of our world.

For many, it means: Suffering is part of God’s will. Now, it could be said that there are times when God enacts suffering in the Bible (I get it). But those seem to be exceptions to the rule. God’s default is always love. Always healing. Always hope. Always restorative.

Some Christians believe that suffering is part of God’s will and plan for the world. I’ve heard this explained by the idea that God’s ultimate goal is to have God’s glory revealed. Sometimes, in this mode of thought, suffering points to God’s glory (even if mysteriously), so God causes it for that aim. Others disagree that suffering is part of God’s actual will but believe that in a world of free choices, it is inevitable.

But, what if these choices are neither predestined by God to reveal glory and a greater good (Calvinism) nor the regrettable outcome of God’s limited control (Arminianism)? Rather, these choices are real choices made by agents other than God. In fact, when we look at Jesus through a divine lens, we see that Jesus is the God who weeps over evils like the premature death of his friend Lazarus (John 11:1–37) and the impending destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41–44). God grieves, authentically feels the pain of the world, and is actively working to bring about good wherever possible.

#4 “This bad thing happened so that God could __________.”

Let’s fill in the blank. “This thing happened so that God could…”

get so and so’s attentionuse it to bring salvation to so and sobring about a greater good at some point in the future_______ (I’m sure you have some interesting experiences with this phrase.)

Now, I want to be clear: Jesus says something that sounds like this common phrase. Here it is:

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who was blind from birth. Jesus’ disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents. This happened so that God’s mighty works might be displayed in him. John 9:1-3 CEB

While this might seem to say that God “caused” this man to be blind, if we investigate further, we actually find that this isn’t likely the case. Blindness (or other forms of suffering) aren’t punishment for sins caused by the parents. Suffering happens in a world of free will. But … and here’s the mindblowing truth of it all … God will use our hurts, whenever possible, to bring about something good … something that points to the true character of God: God is love.

God’s glory is put on display whenever something redemptive can be recycled from circumstances that stand contrary to God’s ultimate will for our lives. Bad things don’t have a direct connection to God’s will, but can be tilted toward a redemptive good, after the fact, at times.

Rethinking our Words about Suffering

My hope is that this brief reflection helps stimulate new thoughts and good conversation. We really don’t get as clear of an answer as we might want on why suffering happens. Our “why” questions about pain aren’t tied up with a neat bow in the Bible. But, our narrative about God can suffer when we attribute things that are evil to God’s ultimate will. So, “why” matters in a deep way for many, even if we won’t ever be able to fully answer it.

Sure, Scripture offers us helpful clues. But ultimately, “why” questions get sidelined for “what” and “how”—what is true in the world and how we are to respond. What is true is that suffering is inevitable. How we are invited to respond to suffering isn’t primarily by seeking theo- logical answers but rather the biblical practice of lament. This is the practice of calling upon God, as we see in Psalm 35:17, where David wrote, “How long, O Lord, will you look on?” (NRSV). The Scriptures teach us that when we suffer, we should push harder into God by naming evil and suffering and calling upon God’s justice, mercy, and kindness.

So, let’s try to be wise with our words. Let’s not use clichés as sources of comfort. Rather, let’s be present to those in pain. Let’s weep, like Jesus wept. And let’s offer our laments and trust to a God who offers us profound empathy rather than meticulous control.

This blog/newsletter contains excerpts from, Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain (WaterBrook, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2021).

The post 4 Clichés about Suffering Christians Need to Stop Saying appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• < 1 Minute Read
SUBSCRIBE VIA ITUNES | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE | STITCHER | AUDIBLE

Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain launched into the world today. In this episode, Kurt reflects on the big ideas of the book and offers a few brief audio samples from the book.

GIVE THE SHOW SOME LOVE

1) If you would be so kind to hop on iTunes (or your feed of choice) and leave Theology Curator a review there, that would be amazing. The more reviews we can get will lead to greater visibility in iTunes. And I (Kurt) LOVE reading your comments!

2) Also, please consider hitting up Theology Curator’s online tip-jar through Patreon (think Kickstarter for ongoing content creators). For $5 per month, or more, you can make a direct impact on this show. Financial partners like you really do make this all possible! Through Patreon, you make a tangible difference in this show’s sustainability and quality!

The post Jesus’ Humanity: Hope for our Hurts [EP-130] appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• < 1 Minute Read
SUBSCRIBE VIA ITUNES | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE | STITCHER | AUDIBLE

In this conversation, Kurt chats with Sean Palmer about his book, Forty Days on Being a 3. It is a series of formation books based on the numbering system of the Enneagram. He discusses the Enneagram as a whole and his particular number, enneagram 3.

GIVE THE SHOW SOME LOVE

1) If you would be so kind to hop on iTunes (or your feed of choice) and leave Theology Curator a review there, that would be amazing. The more reviews we can get will lead to greater visibility in iTunes. And I (Kurt) LOVE reading your comments!

2) Also, please consider hitting up Theology Curator’s online tip-jar through Patreon (think Kickstarter for ongoing content creators). For $5 per month, or more, you can make a direct impact on this show. Financial partners like you really do make this all possible! Through Patreon, you make a tangible difference in this show’s sustainability and quality!

The post Enneagram & 40 Days on Being a 3 with Sean Palmer [EP-129] appeared first on Kurt Willems.

• 3 Minute Read

Hello friends!

Today we get to hear from my friend Brian Zahnd. He’s been a huge influence over the years and I was honored to have him as the “Afterword” for Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain.

“Does God hurt with us?” This is a deeply personal question that cuts to the root of our theology and lives. Since early in the history of Christian theology, certain versions of the doctrine of “divine impassibility” (which argue that God remains untouched by suffering) suggested that the answer to that question is no.

But then came the twentieth century. Advancements in technology tragically increased human suffering, and increased the stakes of the ancient question. At the same time as our species was making significant advancements in medical science that lessened the suffering from disease, we also learned how to mechanize war and subject entire regions to totalitarian control.

From the Gatling gun to the hydrogen bomb, from the Third Reich to Pol Pot, the capacity to inflict suffering became exponential—and cast the ancient question in a new light. The crematoriums of Auschwitz and the killing fields of Cambodia haunt our memories and torture our imaginations. In the ghastly light of the Holocaust, the language of divine impassibility became untenable. From a cell in the Flossenbürg concentration camp, shortly before his execution at the hands of the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned these words: “Only the suffering God can help.”

The triune God not only knows the sufferings of Christ but also knows the sufferings of each and every one of us. But this truth does not stop with abstract theology. It can become part of our lives. For that to happen, we must find better ways of talking about God and our suffering. This is what Bonhoeffer—as a theologian, a pastor, and a sufferer—understood.

The God revealed in Jesus Christ is all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful. Yet the world we live in is full of unjust suffering. We confess that the living God is love, yet babies get brain cancer and brides die on their wedding days. How do we reconcile this? We can’t ignore the problem of pain.

Kurt Willems understands that without authentic freedom, we do not actually exist as authentic beings. We are more than just a movie playing in God’s head. We have will. We have freedom. We have choice—and all the possibility and pain that choice contains. To be something other than a figment of God’s imagination, we must have some degree of real freedom. But that freedom seems to come at a high price.

But here is the good news—God does not stand aloof from us. God participates in our suffering. Through Christ, the “Man of Sorrows,” human suffering mysteriously entered the fellowship of the Trinity. This is not merely the comfort of divine solidarity with human suffering (though it’s that too); rather, Christian hope asserts that suffering is not the end.

The apostle Peter echoed Isaiah when he said, “by his wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5). What Echoing Hope has shown us is that when we bring our wounds to the wounds of Christ, it does not multiply woundedness but begins the healing process. Yet Christian hope for healing in Christ is even more bold, for we confess that in the end death itself will be fully undone. This undoing began on the first Easter and now, amid our woundedness, we await the day when death is destroyed “so that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

It is not human pain, but divine love, that will have the final say.

This is our echoing hope.

—Brian Zahnd, lead pastor of Word of Life Church

[This newsletter/blog contains excerpts from Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain. It is copywritten material. All rights reserved by the author, Kurt Willems, and the publisher WaterBrook, an Imprint of Random House. © 2021.]

The post Brian Zahnd: “Divine Love has the Final Say” appeared first on Kurt Willems.