Lynne Baab • Tuesday December 3 2024
One of the best preachers I’ve ever heard is Paul Windsor. He taught preaching at Carey Baptist College in Auckland, then moved to Langham Partnership. He teaches preaching for Langham worldwide and trains local Christians who teach preaching. He is passionate about understanding our cultural context as well as the Bible. He talks about “the importance of listening to both Word and World.” [1]
He wrote a fascinating blog post in which he describes the major lessons of each of his six decades of life. In describing his 50s, he writes about “a way of exegeting.” He gives one example of that...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday November 26 2024
My congregation focuses on one word for each Sunday of Advent: hope, joy, peace, and love. When we light the Advent wreath in church every Sunday, each candle represents one of those words. In Advent, we prepare for Jesus’s first and second coming. To me, those four words — hope, joy, peace, and love — seem to relate more to Jesus’s arrival than preparation for his coming. I find this confusing.
Advent has traditionally been viewed as a penitential season. “Penitential” means focused on sorrow for having done wrong. Penitence moves us to confess our sins and receive forgiveness, and penitence helps...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday November 19 2024
Numerous praise songs call God our king. The creative Hillsong musicians have given us King of Kings, with this refrain:
“Praise the Father, praise the Son, Praise the Spirit, three in one, God of glory, Majesty, Praise forever to the King of Kings.”
A traditional hymn that evokes God as king begins like this: “Come, Thou Almighty King, help us Thy name to sing; help us to praise.” This focus on praise, visible in both the Hillsong song and the hymn, is common in praise songs and traditional hymns that name God as King.
In contrast, a popular Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” ends with a verse about...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Tuesday November 12 2024
In 2013, I heard a speaker who changed my perspective on how congregations help people grow in faith. Nancy Ammerman is a sociologist of religion. In two talks just over a decade ago, she described her recent research, published a few months later in her book Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life. She and her team of researchers interviewed dozens of people in two major American cities, talking with them at length. The interviewees included Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and people committed to various other forms of spirituality.
The researchers found that people with the deepest...
Read full article »Lynne Baab • Friday August 11 2023
By Lynne M. BaabLynne Baab • Sunday June 26 2022
Making Space for a Continuing Conversation with the Living GodLynne Baab • Saturday October 9 2021
By Lynne M. Baab. Originally published in Christianity Today, July 8, 2021
Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »
Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups.
Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.
You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.
Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills.
Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.
"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader
"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping
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