Draw Near: Lenten Devotional by Lynne Baab, illustrated by Dave BaabTwo Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationSabbath Keeping FastingPrayers of the Old TestamentPrayers of the New TestamentSabbathFriendingA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDeath in Dunedin: A NovelDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelPersonality Type in CongregationsBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeAdvent Devotional

Holy Spirit disruptions: Closed doors/stop

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 19 2021

Holy Spirit disruptions: Closed doors/stop

I’m in church one Sunday, and the minister announces a guest preacher, who will talk to us about evangelism. Oh no, I think. I am very weary of that topic. I am committed to being a witness to Jesus’ presence and gifts in my life, but I am not gifted in evangelism. (I describe the way I make the distinction between evangelism and witness here.)

The preacher opened with some material that I considered to be a bit pushy about evangelism, but then he described the way he engages in conversations with people who are not Christians. He often mentions something about the...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: Choosing disruption through spiritual practices

Lynne Baab • Wednesday August 11 2021

Holy Spirit disruptions: Choosing disruption through spiritual practices

I got to preach ten days ago at our church in Seattle. (The whole service is recorded here.) When the senior minister contacted me about a month ago to ask me to preach, he told me the assigned passage for August 1 was Jesus with the children (Luke 18:15-17). Because I’ve been writing blog posts for two months about Holy Spirit disruptions, I immediately thought about the ways Jesus disrupted things in that incident. The passage is clear that he disrupted the disciples’ priorities on who should be welcomed into Jesus’ presence, but he also gave a fresh, radical, and enigmatic perspective...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: Confess and admit

Lynne Baab • Friday August 6 2021

Holy Spirit disruptions: Confess and admit

I’m reading a book on narcissism. The author has a list of ten things people with narcissistic personality order don’t do. Number one on the list is apologize and number ten is admit vulnerability. Most of us, and most Christians, have at least a slight tendency toward narcissism – after all, we are really only aware of our own situation, emotions, priorities, values, etc. – and for many people, admitting wrong-doing or vulnerability doesn’t come naturally. The Holy Spirit disrupts our sense of complacency and self-righteousness by asking us to confess our sins, which requires some level of vulnerability.

I think there...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: Ignite holy fire

Lynne Baab • Friday July 30 2021

Holy Spirit disruptions: Ignite holy fire

In the West of the United States these hot summer days, fire is terrifying. Here in Seattle, the winds have blown from the west for several weeks, so the smoke from the fires in Eastern Washington is blowing away from us. My friend in the Minneapolis area, however, is dealing with the kind of smoke that we’ve had many recent summers in Seattle, and that we will have when the wind changes. The smoke around Minneapolis, my friend tells me, is coming from fires in Canada to the northwest of them.

Yet despite its enormous destructive power, fire as a tool shaped...

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