Tyler Braun's Blog, page 23

Why Gungor Deserves the Backlash

4 summers ago Rose and I went to a small coffeeshop in downtown Portland to see Gungor play through songs fromtheir album Beautiful Things. We stood the whole time. There were no chairs. Just one hundred people all singing songs that had become anthems for their lives. One of the best concerts I’ve ever been to despite the awful venue. Michael and his wife Lisawere even kind enough to talk to my mom for a few minutes outside of the venue before the show.

Fast forward to the past few weeks when...

A Conversation on God’s Will

I wanted to share a recent conversation I had with Ed Underwood on the subject of God’s will with all of you. Ed is a pastor in the Los Angeles area, and in recent years he has been a great encouragement to me in person and through various onlinevenues as I’ve started in the pastoral role. Ed just released a book entitledThe Trail which follows the same subject as our conversation. Be sure to check it out.

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Tyler: How has your perspective on God’s will shifted in recent years?

Ed: My perspectiv...

The Problem with Praying For Your Enemy

Whether it be with people who disagree with me online, or people who disagree with decisions I make in helping lead a church, I can easily create fake enemies. I say fake because nearly all who come to mind are actually my brothers and sisters in Christ, so to call them an enemy of mine isover-the-top.

As someone who prefers to have hard conversations, engage difficult subjects, whileconsistently pursuing openness over isolation, I can create a “me vs. them” mentality where those who don’t une...

Healing the Scars of Shame

Last weekend I spoke at our church on the subject of shame, a subject that holds lots of history for me personally. If you’ve read my book and know pieces of the story of my sin-ridden past, you know that I’ve walked the cycle of shame:sin, and guilt, which leads to hiding instead of confession and repentance (if you want to hear more on this cycle of shame, downloadthe notes and/or listen to the message I’ve linked tohere).

Since last SundayI’ve talked and met with several individuals in my c...

Pray the Psalms

This summer I’ve been slowly making my way through the Psalms during my time of morning reading and prayer. My reasons for why are easily summed up by Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said, “Pray the Psalms whether or not they express adequately what you feel. It may be necessary to pray contrary to your feelings.”

I’ve found praying the Psalms to be a breath of fresh air as I’ve faced some trying circumstances over the past few weeks. Hard conversations, tough situations among people in my church body...

On a Boat in the Middle of a Storm

The older I get the more I see today’s culture validating toxic behavior, making this world a toxic environment to live in. The anti-thesis of the Gospel is the accepted norm: you are what you do; survival of the fittest; the hardest and most connivingworker wins the day. Stress is something only kept at bay for the two weeks of vacation a year.

It is this environment that produces the anxiety we have all come to give into, living with it, instead of pushing against it.

A year ago I read Mark S...

Interview with Barnabas Piper, Author of The Pastor’s Kid

Barnabas and I have interacted together for a few years, mostly overour tortuouslove affair with Minnesota sports teams. However, we also share another thing in common, we are both pastor’s kids; he being the son of a well-known pastor, John Piper, and me being the son of an unknown pastorwho has beenfaithful to the call.

A few weeks ago Barnabas and I talked about his book, about growing up as PKs, and about how churches can better understand the situation pastor’s kids face.

You can pick up a...

Do You Condone Same-Sex Marriage by Photographing the Wedding?

This past Sunday I sharedwhat I believe to be my most important message (you can streamthe audio of that message here, as well as download the audio and notes), two years into my pastoral role. The subject was how Christians should respond to a culture increasingly accepting of same-sex partnerships and sexuality.

Someone asked me how long I took to prepare the message, and I responded by saying 8 years. This is a subject, with various nuances, that my generation has dealt with first-hand over...

The Allure of Parish Pornography

Eugene Peterson says that many pastors fall in love with ecclesiological pornography—fake pictures of church ministry—filtered so ministry becomes a glorified endeavor of glamour. Taking cues from the surrounding culture, we begin to desire something that does not exist. The snapshots we see of theministry of glamour aren’treal.

Upon starting seminary I worked as a janitor at a large church in Portland, Oregon. I served in the college ministry, and after six monthsfound a job onthe creative ar...

Does This Need to Have a Title?

Someday I’ll stop blogging. Tomorrow? August 17th, 2036? Maybe.

When I first started writing in this space nearly seven years ago I posted something new six days a week. Then I transitioned to five, then three, and now typicallytwo days a week of new posts.

Nearly all the bloggers I know who’ve been at this online web-log writing for more than three years either make a lot of money through their blog and turned it into a job, or they aren’t married, or they don’t have kids.

My typical work day u...