Featured Posts
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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Brannon Howse and Justin Peters Dissing Visions
The following video comes from Worldview Weekend, and is a conversation between Brannon Howse and Justin Peters. What’s interesting about this post is that pretty much every accusation they make against modern people who claim visions of or visits to heaven could be made against various Bible writers. In fact, they run into this difficulty…
Revelation Requires Interaction
In my book When People Speak for God I used the story of the one-ended telephone cord. Edward Vick makes the same point in much more profound language than I used. But even should someone intend to make known to me what I would otherwise never come to discover by myself, I shall not in…
Connectionalism and Dysfunctional Churches
I have made a few negative comments about conference dashboards keeping statistics on membership, apportionments, and other activities available to anyone who wants to read. I continue to question whether these numbers really tell the story of the health of the churches. There are, I believe, some very large and growing churches that have little…
Revelation and a System of Doctrine
I really enjoy the last few days of work on a pending book release, because I include an opportunity to read the final form of the book at a more reasonable pace and without the constant distraction of working on editorial changes. Well, I should confess that I’m also always going crazy with production issues,…
This Headline Says It All
Tithing Hits Record Low; Churches Spend More to Make Congregants Happy. While I don’t believe tithing is a command binding on Christians, my problem is not that it would demand too much, but rather that it demands too little, does so in the wrong way, and for the wrong reasons. But that’s another topic. And…
To the IRD: Democracy is Biblical?
Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy thinks that religious leaders should not be supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement: “Religious activists who have aligned with the Wall Street Occupation should model mature Christian discernment, not echo angry resentments that dream of a secular utopia.” That quote is highlighted at the top of…
Minutemen – Follow the Oil Tour
Get your own signed copy of Nick May’s new book Minutemen during his “Follow the Oil” tour.
O’Reilly vs Dawkins and Mocking God
The video below is a short exchange between Richard Dawkins and Bill O’Reilly. I’ve come to expect nonsense from O’Reilly, and I have a fairly low opinion of what Dawkins writes regarding theology, while considering his science writing second to none. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com What caught my attention here was the accusation…
Battle over Inspiration or Interpretation
There’s an interesting article by Mark Galli on the Christianity Today web site, titled A New Bible Battle. Galli refers to the “old” battle, and Lindsell’s book. That battle was over inerrancy. But this new battle has to do with reading the Bible in what Galli calls “sub-biblical” ways, for example, as a self-help manual….
Discipleship Not About Numbers
… so says Dan Dick. All I can say is I agree. Go read!
An Amazingly Bad Article on THE MESSAGE
Well, not really so amazing. I’ve seen many like it, and it comes from the Worldview Weekend folks who have been spending their time being extraordinarily critical of other conservative Christian organizations. The article is titled BRIEF (AND BY NO MEANS EXHAUSTIVE) SUMMARY OF PASSAGES CONTAINED WITHIN “THE MESSAGE” BY EUGENE PETERSON WHICH DIRECTLY COMPROMISE…
Minutemen
(As of 10/2/11, B&N is offeringMinutemen for $8.76, 32% off the cover price) Nick May is coming out with his second book, Minutemen. (His previous title is Megabelt from Energion Publications.) This book is not at all like Megabelt. It’s the story of four young men whose relationships haven’t worked out (or are deteriorating) and…
Hired Staff Won’t Solve Church Problems
Yesterday I posted one of my short stories over on my Jevlir blog. For those who don’t read that blog (its readership is quite low), I wanted to write a couple of notes here. Many churches think they’ll find the solution to the problem of declining membership or financial problems by hiring just the right…
The Dominionism Debate Continues
Joel Watts and Peter Kirk are at it about dominionism, and now a book I publish, The Politics of Witness, is getting a place in the debate. I have a couple of problems with the title “dominionist.” First, in response to Joel, I think it is important to make distinctions between different viewpoints, even when…
Christian Carnival September 14, 2011 Posted
… at Beyond Belief.
Unity of Love – Unity of Hate
There are plenty of posts going up today commemorating the events of September 11, 2001. I do remember where I was. I was hoping to sleep in for some reason (usually late working or reading), and was awakened by being told there was something I just had to see. On the TV was a picture…
The Only Worshiper Who Got It
At today’s church service there was something I wish I had caught on camera. I’m not really quick, even though I have a reasonably good camera in my cell phone. Our pastor, Geoffrey Lentz, was preaching the final sermon of his Summer in the Psalms series, this time from Psalm 150. He talked about exuberant…
Bad Girls, Bad Girls
Rachel Held Evans, in her Sunday Superlatives links, provides a link to a post by Sarah Bubar on The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood blog titled The Bad Girl’s Club. In this post are featured four women for this “bad girl’s [sic] club”: Julian of Norwich, Ann Hutchinson, Margaret Fell Fox, and Phoebe Palmer….
Christian Carnival Posted
… at Thinking in Christ. Find out about such diverse topics as Rowling’s ethics of magic and dating the synoptic gospels.
Dominionists, Dominionisimists, Theonomists and Political Labels
If you’re expecting me to do a rundown on the definitions of all of these terms, then you’ll be disappointed. There’s plenty of writing trying to define the terms. Jeremy Pierce wrote the key post discussing “dominionismism,” titled simply Dominionismists. In it, he compares those who are concerned about dominionism with Birthers and Truthers. On…
Reading Acts Series on the New Perspective on Paul
I’ve written a bit about this before, but it’s hardly my main area of expertise. Philip J. Long has written a very nice introductory series on the New Perspective on Paul. Here are the links: Basics of the New Perspective – An Introduction What Was the Old Perspective? Judaism as a Religion of Grace Was…
BLT = Bible * Literature * Translation
There’s a new translation blog, and I’ve added it to my RSS reader. Check out BLT.
A Bone to Pick with Scholars and Experts
When I first started attending a United Methodist church, and the leadership figured out what my background was, I was soon invited to teach various classes around the church. I was fairly pleased with this, as I love to talkteach, and it gave me plenty of opportunities. My approach was to search for ever newer…
Kitteh vs. Piano
Link to Video HT: Why Evolution is True.