Great List of Questions about Kids’ Sports and Church

I came across a great article filled with good questions for Christian parents to ask themselves about their various commitments to their local faith family (church) and to other entities such as kids’ sports teams (or replace team with “band” or “debate” or whatever…).  You can check out the full list of questions here, but [...]

When Grace says “No”…(follow-up from yesterday)

Yesterday’s post which included references by me about making whips and going off on a youth ministry conference for rushing a publicly fallen megachurch pastor (and his wife) onto their stage is the petri dish for today’s post.  So you may want to click the link above and give it a quick read-through so this [...]

Would you let this person teach your youth? How about your youth leaders?

(Post, in which I “go off”.  there’s not a lot of “logical flow here”, I admit up front.  But sometimes you see something and it just eats at you and you’ve got to say something even if few people read it. But the evangelical corporate church climate is just ridiculous and downright evil at times.) [...]

The Well-Adjusted Jesus- CS Lewis

from The Four Loves, referring to the problems he saw with classifying all human problems as psychological or pathological and how “normal” should not necessarily be our goal: “We have only seen one such Man. And He was not at all like the psychologist’s picture of the integrated, balanced, adjusted, happily married, employed, popular citizen.  [...]

“Jesus was a legalist.”

No, that’s not my new blog title! (I’m still thinking through some updates and changes, but I’ve been kind of busy the last two weeks now that I’m “bi-vocational” for a month or two).  But unfortunately, this title was found on a local church sign near where I live: Now, let me admit a couple [...]

Pharisee Envy…

I wish sometimes that I got Jesus half as much as the religious leaders of his day. They at least saw he was enough of a threat to their way of life to kill him. I just turn on the tv and think about something else.

Mission and National Self-Preservation

Hengel on first century Judaism*: “A universal missionary consciousness could not really develop freely in the face of this elemental impulse towards national self-preservation.” I’ll leave this without comment and let you ponder an application for today. (*Found quoted in Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, by Kostenberger and O’Brien)

National Repentance…CS Lewis

I wish I had this essay in pamphlet form every time the first Thursday in May rolls around (National Day of Prayer).  It is titled “Dangers of National Repentance” and can be found in the God in the Dock collection of essays. “The first and fatal charm of national repentance is, therefore, the encouragement it [...]

Conversations I won’t have over the Internet…

In light of some recent activity by bloggers from my particular denomination, I wanted to remind myself of things I try to avoid in cyberspace.  The list is not exhaustive, but the topics included certainly can be! 1. I don’t have non-public dialogue with women by and large.  My work e-mail is monitored, so that [...]

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?