“I only read the Bible by myself.”

Recently, in one of our Wednesday night Bible studies at church, one of our regularly attending high schoolers made a comment that I think illustrates something wrong with the way we do church/spirituality as American Christians.  We were studying a passage of Scripture, and I always encourage the students to have a copy of the [...]

No ordinary family…

from the late Paul Hiebert’s The Gospel in Human Contexts: “But this is no ordinary family, no merely human community. In world religions, the gods demand the service of their worshipers, who must feed and clothe them, take them on processions, and offer sacrifices to them. In the church, it is God who descends to [...]

“Dare to be a sinner…” from Bonhoeffer

Finished reading “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer with my wife recently.  I hope to add some more quotes from it in the near future (though I will probably have to re-read the book since we don’t underline when we read together!). from chapter 5- “Confession and Communion”… “He who is alone with his sin is [...]

“Under-program Your Church”!

Came across a great post yesterday called “10 Reasons to Under-Program Your Church.“  I’m considering writing a follow-up called “You might be in an over-programmed church if..” (Foxworthy-esque).  This is a topic I’ve thought about often, have lots of opinions on, and am waiting for the right time to share them some day. Anyways, check [...]

Problem with youth today…

Is the problem with today’s youth that they have rejected the professed beliefs of their ancestors… …or is that they have too readily and passionately embraced the ACTUAL beliefs of their parents and leaders? or to self-examine… what things do I love that will destroy the lives of those I influence?

Reaching Young Adults…

I’ve finally managed to get around to reading Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them by Ed Stetzer, Richie Stanley, and Jason Hayes.  The book (especially in the first third) is very research heavy, but I’ve been enjoying most of the second third which discusses 4 markers of ministry that [...]

Helpful Thought about Giving by Stetzer

In the book, Planting Missional Churches, Ed Stetzer provided an intriguing insight that many church leaders could learn from regarding the topic of “giving”: “We are convinced that teaching tithing as the first lesson of stewardship makes no sense in our context: people are already living at 120 percent of their income and making it [...]

“Adopted for Life” – Book Review

Adopted for Life was released last year and made its way onto a lot of bloggers’ “Best of 09″ lists.  Dr. Russell Moore is dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in “LOU-eh-vool”, Kentucky.  He also is on pastoral staff at a local church. Adopted for Life is a blend [...]

Protestant Iconography

Growing up as I did in a mixture of contemporary Independent/Southern Baptist churches and attending a private Christian school run by a Fundamentalist Baptist church, I did not have much encounter with the more sophisticated arguments from our Eastern Orthodox and even Roman Catholic friends regarding the use of icons in worship.  I just knew [...]

Top 5 for All Saints Day

In honor of “All Saints Day” being Saturday and because I am too busy this week to actually write anything, I am asking folks to submit their top 5 Christians who have impacted their lives in some way.  They can be living or dead.  Rules: 1-No Biblical People!  Maybe we’ll save that for a future [...]