CategoriesMentoring Matters, VP3 happenings by

Remembering Jim Houston

We have been born into and grown up in a culture that is deeply alienated from God. So as we cross the border into God’s kingdom, with its radically new attitudes and priorities, we will need all the help we can get from a spiritual friend who has made the same perilous journey before.

The way in which friends behave towards us can also help us to have faith in God. If friends really pay attention to me, listening to me and not just to my words, then I am encouraged to believe that God pays attention and listens to me in an even greater way.

James Houston

(1922-2026)

 

I first met Dr. Jim Houston over 30 years ago as a few friends and I sat together with him in a TCBY yogurt near Biola University. Dallas Willard had given us a glowing “scouting report” of Jim Houston. That night, we encountered a wise and faithful 72-year-old man who resonated with a sense of God’s creative and warm presence in the world. Around the table that evening, Dr. Houston asked each of us, “Where are you at?” When it came my turn to answer, a question emerged within me as if it had been floating to the surface for some time, and then, in that particular moment, it broke through the surface.

Over the prior three years of seminary, I had become aware of deep disappointment and despair. I was tired of trying to believe. All the theology that I “knew” seemed distant from my heart. Was it all true? Did God really care? Why did he seem so absent? Why did my life not make sense? Read More

CategoriesSeasonal, VP3 happenings by

Paul’s Challenge, Our Prayer

A Challenge

 

You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; 

and what you have heard from me through many witnesses 

entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.

2 Timothy 2:1-2 

 

I am mindful, as one year ends and another begins, that we, as a VantagePoint3 (VP3) community, continue to live and grow and serve in the wake of Paul’s threefold encouragement in 2 Timothy 2:1-2. Paul exhorts a younger leader, Timothy, to: 

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CategoriesJesus' Way, VP3 happenings by

A VantagePoint3 Gathering

We host a VantagePoint3 Gathering every couple of years and invite our dispersed community of developmentally minded leaders to join us. Last week, 77 of us gathered in Scottsdale, AZ.

A group of men and women, ages 17 to 84, came together, sharing a deep concern for “growing up in every way into Christ” and helping others grow up into Christ. Most of us also wanted to find a little warmth amidst winter’s cold. Read More