We Live In A Phoebe World

In the Friends episode, The One With the Cat, Phoebe literally thinks her deceased mom is in the cat. While the rest of the cast finds this to be completely normal, Ross stands as the only voice of reason. He cannot believe no one else sees just how ridiculous Phoebe’s belief is. He cannot understand why the rest of the group finds it more of a service to go along with Phoebe’s fantasy. 

We live in a Phoebe world. As long as you believe it, that’s all that matters.

In the Phoebe world, we can no longer do Ross-apologetics, flustering ourselves at the ridiculousness of the world’s unbelief and irrationality. You can agree with Ross all day long, but you will seldom find someone from the Phoebe worldview resonating with you.

In James Sire’s The Universe Next Door, Sire unpacks the idea that human reasoning has been essentially shot in the foot in our post-truth world. Since the 1600s, Sire makes the case that philosophers (from Descartes to Nietzsche) have shifted the Western world’s mind: a shift from valuing knowledge to meaning. 

These ideas, according to Sire, have taken much time to sink into culture. But here we are, stumbling out of the postmodern bar at 2am, drunk on nihilistism. 

If we live in a *post-truth, Phoebe, world and human reasoning and science are no longer trusted, then apologetics, ministry, discipleship, missions must engage the realm of the arts. Arts are where post-moderns are looking for, expressing, and making meaning.

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*Post-truth: determining objectivity from subjective emotions or personal beliefs rather than objective truth.

Resurrection Hope for Crucifixion Work

Today, my new book comes out: Resurrection Hope for Crucifixion Work: 40 Mission Meditations from 2 Corinthians.

I wrote this book over the course of several years to help solve this one problem: how do I stop letting the hardships of God’s mission consume my mind? Turns out, 2 Corinthians is just the book where Paul discloses so much of his own trials but anchors them in a resurrection framework.

If he told the Romans to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2), I imagine 2 Corinthians is an example of him doing so.

This book is written for missionaries, church planters, and lay leaders who are running on low fuel. It’s a 40-day breath of air designed to help you see resurrection life through the lens of your real, daily limitations.

How to get it: The ebook is available today on Gumroad as a digital kit (PDF + EPUB files).

Because this was made as a gift to the Body, it is Pay What You Want ($0+). No financial friction, no paywall. If you want to throw a few dollars into the workbench to help fund physical print runs and ISBN registrations down the road, it’s deeply appreciated. If you need it for $0, take it with joy.

What’s inside the bundle:

• 📖 The full book: Resurrection Hope for Crucifixion Work

• 📄 The Comfort in Affliction Prayer Log & 30-Way Action Guide

👉 Download the Field Manual Bundle ($0+)

If you know someone laboring in hard soil who needs water today, pass this free resource along to them.

What Are Friends For?

Our summer men’s group has been reading and discussing Matt Smethurst’s Tim Keller on the Christian Life. As I reflected on the chapter about friendships, I saw a pattern.

God’s love was not merely an objective reality for mankind. From the seed of his agape (unconditional, self-sacrificial) love, he always summons us in three directions: Out, Up, and Down. Never In. All three work together and constantly move back and forth:

© Matt Taylor

The Out-Up-Down pattern binds Christian relationships in a unique way:

• God summons us Up in a level-up kind of way through the relationships among the ekklesia. Through those leaders over us, his creates in us a cognitive dissonance where the mere presence and Word-speak among the body of Christ draws our attention vertically. Many believers might consider this Sunday-centered experience as the center of their Christian life. But this is why Upward, alone, cannot be our only focus.

• God always sends us Out on mission into the world. This is actually our purpose (Ephesians 2:10). This occurs through the roles he’s given us (Christian, parent, child, boss, employee, ministry leader, etc.). When we only stay Upward, we tend to feel a kind of plateau in our faith journey. We form certain bonds through mission differently than the Upward sphere. God creates communitas through mission. Communitas is that flavor of community that He forms when a group of people share a mission together. If you’ve ever been on a sports team or a short-term mission trip and experienced this magnified bond within a short time frame, that’s communitas.

• But God also calls us DOWN. He roots the gospel in our soul’s soil over time through the context of the Christian community (differently than the relationships of the Sunday gathering context). These friendships are the ones where we can be more vulnerable about our struggles to follow Jesus. They are people who provide safety, and with whom we feel truly seen and heard. But these close relationships don’t let us stay where we are at. They summon us to deeper belief and conformity to Christ. They nudge you to find your identity as a fellow believer in a community and, as Lewis notes, keep the focus continually turning outward from the friends themselves.

This image isn’t perfect (just some visual ideating).

But one thing I know for sure: Each of these relationships get our eyes off ourselves—our pride. They kill the Me Monster, that Mayor Humdinger constantly crying, “What about Me?!”

One might say, “But don’t each of these (Up-Down-Out) impact me?” Of course they do.

But here is the irony. God new-creation’d you to provide purpose through community: to serve in the trenches of the world alongside others, to nourish one another, and to commit to leveling up as apart of others. The irony is these three kinds of relationships, not merely make your life about IN. No, God designed much blessing to your own life through these three “eyes-out” frames.

He Was Everyone’s Best Friend

Boy, what a testimony about Glen Hansard. May we all live such a testimony.

A Normal Kind of Failure

If engaging in God’s mission leaves you feeling drained, isolated, or quietly battling imposter syndrome, you aren't failing. You’re normal.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that ministry suffering equals personal failure. But 2 Corinthians offers a radically different paradigm: weakness isn't a glitch in kingdom work—it’s the exact "clay jar" reality God uses to display His power.

Cruciform labor knows no boundaries. Whether you’re a cross-cultural worker, a lay leader, or a creative finding your footing, carrying heavy loads in hard soil is exhausting work. I have walked through false starts, shifting roles, and complex seasons that made me question my place in the mission.

Fatigue isn't proof that God is done with you. It’s an invitation to anchor your confidence in resurrection life rather than your own strength.

Oral Irony

Recently, I was at a local library for a book sale. 

One book caught my attention: A book about musical harmony. 

Reading about singing will never make you an expert on the matter.

On Decapitating the Imagination

One of my lowest moments as an artist was when I led a worship team years ago.

I told one of the other worship leader not to do a certain song because it contained a metaphor in it. And that metaphor itself was not in the bible.

I reasoned that not everyone would understand the metaphor (which is ridiculous now that I remember).

This was my lowest art moment because it is the fruit of decapitating the imagination.

Paul uses roughly 30 metaphors just in his 3-chapter letter to Titus. Think about that: a letter explicitly written to bring order to a chaotic church relied heavily on poetry, mental imagery, and the arts to get its point across.

When I killed that song, I thought I was protecting the integrity of God’s word. Little did I know I was policing the very vehicle God designed to make doctrine stick.

Do Not Love The World…

But love the people.

Love the community and culture you reside.

They are not the same as loving the world.