Author: David M. Hare

Recently I read a book called The Body Keeps the Score, which chronicles the growth in understanding of a psychiatrist named Dr. Bessel A. van der Kolk. Specifically, Kolk started to notice that trauma survivors, though incredibly different from one another, tended to respond to day-today stresses in similar ways. This led him to study the effect of trauma on the human body, and to find ways to help these survivors live normal lives. He shares the story of a veteran in the book that I will try to summarize here: A man came in for counseling. He had been…

You may have heard that according to a Barna poll, 52% of practicing Christians strongly agree that the Bible teaches “God helps those who help themselves.” In Cameroon, there is an assumption that everyone should dress up for church. If you were to tell most church attendees here that there is no such command in the Bible, they would be shocked. It seems evident to me that our cultures often set us up to misunderstand the Scripture. And I have found that in churches all over the world, Christians accept certain principles as biblical truth, without examination. Today I would…

We are excited to return to Cameroon next month–we fly out mid-July! As we reflect on this past year, we have much to thank the Lord for. And as we look ahead to this next term in Cameroon, we have binders full of plans, hearts full of dreams, and yet remain ever aware of our need for the Lord…[more]

I grew up with a misunderstanding in my mind as it relates to how Christians serve others, and particularly the poor. While I have seen this misunderstanding primarily reflected in American conservatives, I am not blaming anyone in my life. I think that this misunderstanding led me at times to look down on others, to refuse help, and to protect my own interests. The misunderstanding is this: while the Bible teaches that we are to serve and help the weak and poor, we should only serve and help those who deserve it. One of the first times I had to…

Throughout this year of home assignment, I have had numerous opportunities to preach and share at churches all around the US. I am not much of a preacher myself, but I am glad to have the opportunity to share about what God is doing and encourage churches to think about and pray for the unreached peoples of the world. But I have noticed a funny thing that happens every time I preach: I feel the worst that I ever feel on Sunday night. It is a little hard to describe. There is a shade of me questioning how well I…

I recently had a chance to address students at a missionary training school. It was exciting to see their expectation and joy at the thought of ministering to unreached people groups around the world. I can remember the buzz of expectation mixed with the anxiety of trying something new. Many of them are not sure what continent they will be living on two years from now, let alone what language they will be speaking, or food they will be eating. Spending time with them was fun and inspiring. Into this context I was asked to talk about our mission agency,…

I recently read an interesting article by a man named Shane Morris, called A Message to Intentionally Childless Millennials. The article was inspired by a tweet by Shane which sparked a fierce Twitter debate. Here is the tweet: Apparently my fellow millennials poured in to condemn this tweet, claiming that they preferred their freedom and money to children. Shane obviously disagrees and calls out such hedonism, as he should. He does make one guarded caveat, though: “Not everyone will get married and have kids, and not everyone should. Christians have a very ancient category for those who are called to lifelong celibacy…

I was very passionate in seminary about Bible translation. I loved the NASB, which was so wooden and formal, I could feel the foreign grammar bleeding through the page. I remember having debates in classes about how we should translate certain words and passages. My passion was, however, poorly disguised ignorance. I had never really tried to translate the Bible and at that stage would have done a terrible job. At the time, I tended to talk about words and their meanings in an English-centric way. So, when studying Greek I would say, “The word ανθρωπος means ‘man’.” It made…

A couple of Sundays ago, I was made aware of two churches that lost their lead pastors to disqualifying sin. In my travels around the US the last few months, I have heard story after story of church leaders failing in major ways. These church scandals have lead to heartbreak, division, and in some cases the dissolution of entire churches. As I have been visiting churches, I have seen some that have responded well to these challenges and there are a few observations I have made that I would like to share. There are no heroes There is a common…

What kinds of things keep you up at night? I (Stacey) can tell you the kinds of questions that keep me awake, such as: How can we help new Kwakum believers have hope in a culture is so filled with death, fighting, and misery? What do we do about a new believer who is living in immorality and yet can’t feasibly separate from her boyfriend without causing World War 3 with him and his family? And what about their children? What do we do with the new believers who get caught up in violent fits of rage and chase people…