This is just a quick observation that I seem to have noticed. It seems to me that popular evangelical leaders read books by people like MacArthur, Warren, Hybels, Swindol, Lucado, and Stanley: practitioners and pastors. However, it seems like emerging church leaders are reading books by Hauerwas, Wright, Brueggemann, Volf, McKnight, Moltmann, Franke, and Grenz: […]
Birthday Books
My birthday was last week. And, as birthdays go, I got some pretty decent birthday money. So, what did I do with it? Buy an iPod? Surround sound? A bluetooth earpiece? Heck no. I bought some books. And they are: The Mediation of Christ by Thomas Forsyth Torrance Principles of Lutheran Theology by Carl E. […]
We’re all Heretics
Wow, it’s been while. I was pretty much non-existent in July, being gone for two weeks on mission trips, taking some vacation, and spending time with my wife as she was out of school. Hopefully, I’ll get back into a semi-regular blogging pattern. Here’s my first attempt to get back at it. I remember growing […]
I confess…
So, over at the Faith and Theology blog a meme has been started; it is spreading quickly. Sounded fun. I confess: I watched Kent Hovind videos as a child and argued with my fourth grade science teacher about the age of the earth. I confess: In junior high and high school I thought denominations that […]
Back from our Retreat
Well, VBS finished up last Thursday, and I was on a retreat with our youth this week from Tuesday until today. The theme was “spiritual disciplines” finishing off what was a yearlong look at spiritual disciplines. There wasn’t a whole lot of teaching. Instead, I had them do intentional exercises (via scheduling and a workbook […]
A Theological Test
I try to take theology seriously. It is helpful that I enjoy reading theology and listening to boring lectures by theologians and philosophers. However, I am deeply committed to the idea that theology is not for the ivory towers, but must be imbedded into the worshiping community. I mean, as much as I have respect […]
Emergent Gnosticism?
A common thread in dueling schools of Christian theological (or philosophical) thought is to characterize “them” (whoever “they” may be) as embracing some sort of heretical position. I’ve been reading a few posts recently that try to pigeonhole the emerging church as gnostic. I forget some of the other places I’ve seen this recently, but […]
Brian McLaren is a Heretic
This is an experiment in blogging. I get nary a blip of traffic on my blog, which is fine by me. As I outlined in my first post on the blog, this is really an exercise in discipline and an opportunity to keep my writing skills intact. Additionally, it is becoming a place where I […]
Christian Fundamentalist Shenanigans
Wow. Apparently Chuck Swindoll is too “liberal” for some folks. He was dropped by a radio station (or network, I don’t know) for using vulgar language like “crap” and “balls”. They have kept a seven-year running tally of offenses: Go here for an introduction. Go here for the full release on Slice of Laodicea. Have […]
Are You Infected?
Below is the article I wrote for this month’s church newsletter. I really struggled writing it; I just couldn’t put the words together like I wanted to. Hopefully, it will be coherent enough that people will mildly understand what I was getting at. As we’re trying to communicate a new way of doing youth ministry to […]