My Week at Ridge Haven

I spent the last week at Ridge Haven. Every two years or so MTW has a meeting for MTW leaders from around the world. I think there were over 100 at this meeting. I heard several people say this was one of the better ones. In the past people have sometimes felt that the organizers of the meeting were more interested in pushing a certain agenda than in listening to us. I think this time people felt more listened to.

It was about 9 years ago that I first started making public some of my critique of MTW and suggestions for a more biblical and Christ-centered model of missions. For most of that time I’ve felt ignored. But in the last couple of years I’ve felt that my ideas are starting to have an impact. Maybe they are also being reinforced from other sources, I don’t know. Probably. In any case, it was encouraging to see some positive results from my work. Several people last week told me something like this: “Everybody is quoting you and referring to your ideas.”

Our main speaker this year was a man who is not in the PCA. He wrote a book called The Emotionally Healthy Church. We were all supposed to read his book beforehand. I also wrote a summary and critique of it. The book has a lot to do with things I have written about concerning personality. His focus is not on personality, but on the hidden ways your upbringing affects you. However, many of the issues he brought up were personality-related. It is a good book in many ways, but lacks a strong Christ-centered perspective. If you want to see my summary and critique, you can download it here.
One of the best things about meetings like this is connecting with friends. It’s good to be home again. Thanks for your prayers.