Nate Pyle's Blog, page 3

Fear May Cause Us to Deny Jesus

Once again the world finds itself in an uproar. The attacks in Paris have left all of us reeling. But it isn’t just Paris. It’s Beruit, Kenya, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. For months the nations of the world have tried to respond to the crisis in Syria. Refugees are flowing out of the region, spilling into Europe, Canada, and the United States. In the wake of the most recent terror attacks, fear has reached a fever pitch. Becauseone of the gunmen in the Paris attacks is thought to be Syrian...

We Are Not Producers

Lately, the words have been harder to come by. So many times I’ve showed up at my computer, cursor blinking, and sat staringwith a hollow mind. The words used to come fast. I could knock out a blog post in under an hour. Writing wasn’t the problem, finding the time to write all that I wanted to write was the problem.

Writing was easier before I was a “writer.” I was a pastor with a blog. Not a popular blogger. Not an author. Sure, I was writing, but I sure as hell wasn’t a writer. A writer k...

What I Need to Hear

There is so much noise in the worldtoday.

Especially on the internet.

Everyone has an opinion, and everyone can share their unfiltered thought with the world in an instant(I realize the irony here).There is a part of me that wants to abandon it all together for some quiet. But I keep sifting through all the opinions because there is some gold buried in the mud. However, lately it seems like there is more mud and less gold. And the mud is increasingly negative, cynical, and pessimistic.

My so...

The Church is an Easy Target

Often time, I come to the computer to try and write a blog post, an article, or work on the next book and I try to climb into the mind of the reader. What does the reader need hear? What questions are they asking? What lie is the reader a slave to?

Not today.

Today I need to hear something. I need to hear that the church is good and beautiful. Cheap shots at the church are a dime a dozen. Entire platforms have been built by individuals dragging the bride of Christ through the mud because she...

When It’s A Big Day

Today, after nearly two years of writing, praying, hoping, and dreaming, my first book, Man Enough: How Jesus Redefines Manhood, releases out into the world.

It’s an odd feeling. On the one hand it feels momentous and huge and terrifying – and it is all those things! But on the other hand, today feels normal. I woke up, made coffee, took a shower, got dressed, and headed over to the high school to mentor a student like I do every other Tuesday. Today feels just like every other day. Oh, it w...

Donald Trump Goes To My Church

Okay, the Donald doesn’t go to my church, the one I pastor. He goes to a church in New York City, Marble Collegiate Church, which is a church in my denomination, the Reformed Church of America. In a small denomination like ours, finding out Trump attends an RCA church was like finding out he has been slipping into the back of my church unnoticed.

I’ll be honest, my reaction to readingthat Trump holds membership at achurch in the RCA was visceral. When the church made a public statement dista...

What’s Wrong With the World? Men.

Recently, I had a lunch with someone who’s a few months out from becoming a dad for the first time.Heshared how cynical he was about the world. Everything everywhere is bad, and it shows no signs of getting better anytime soon. Bringing a child into this world scares him.

It scared me.

It’s true. The world is broken, and it doesn’t take a scientist to tell us that. No one needs mountains of evidence to confirm the existence of suffering, anger, vitriol, racism, hatred, and death.

Most people...

Farewell, World Vision

Farewell, World Vision!

That’s what an entire community said as they celebrated the transformation over the last fifteen years.

Ten years ago it would take you three hours to get to Leuk Daek from the nearest paved road. During the rainy season, flooding made it impassible. The road followsthe Mekong River, and when it rained, became the Mekong River.

Those living in the Leuk Daek district was nearly isolated – accessible most reliantly by boat, and destitute. In 2000, when World Vision bega...

Making Poverty A Choice

Photo Credit: Laura Reinhardt / World Vision

In Cambodia, heat and humidity join forces in an unholy alliance causing air-conditioned reliant Westerners to leak sweat from pores long dormant. Sure, there are places in the southern United States that feature heat and humidity as compliments to their sweet tea, but there’s one major difference between Southern states and Cambodia: In the U.S. we can choose to enter air-conditioning.Most often we onlyexperience this steamy betrothal as we walk f...

Target Reveals Just How Anxious We Are About Gender

You can tell me all day long that gender is innate. That if one is born a girl they will have a certain disposition towards dolls and pink and Gilmore Girls. Likewise, if one is born a boy they will have a strong affinity for cars and blue and Transformers. You can even tell me that this belief is rooted in the Bible (how you got that blue is for boys and pink is for girls is from the Bible I have no idea, but I’m not making the argument). But if you tell me that and then prophesy about the...