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Revisiting the Reformation
Christianity Today is running a series of articles from world evangelical leaders on their views of what is needed in the 21st Century. Rene Padilla’s column focused on a return to first principles, especially as it regards the first Lausanne Conference. Padilla’s opening line: A key problem of evangelical churches worldwide is the unilateral emphasis on numerical growth. For the…
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The Gospel of Wealth
David Brooks is the like the Babe Ruth of columnists for me. Every time I see his column is like seeing Babe Ruth come to bat. You just wait to see him hit it out of the park. This column on “The Gospel of Wealth” is powerful. I remember reading a short excerpt from David Platt’s book when the publisher…
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Back to Work
My sabbatical is finished and today is my first Sunday back preaching. Of course, it’s Labor Day weekend and no one will be there… which could help because after 5 weeks off I’m not sure how this will go! The time away was needed. I was certainly more tired than I thought and the rest was helpful. As I come…
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Two Books Evangelicals and Pentecostals MUST Read
Liturgical Theology, by Simon Chan. Desiring the Kingdom, by James K.A. Smith. No links. I’m not making money. These books are powerful and needed.
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Greatness
I am currently working my way through the Book of John in my preaching. Today focuses on John 3:22-36. John the Baptist’s testimony was that Jesus needed to become greater and he needed to fade into the background. John the Baptist would just not fit in today. He needed to learn about “market share” and “branding his ministry.” John’s great…
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Leaving Our Christian Ghettos
One of the great challenges of pastoring is to move beyond pastoring my church and into pastoring my community. The longer I am in ministry, the more fed up I am with “programs” we try and design to keep the machine we call “church” going. If we were out truly pastoring our communities, things might look different. On this matter,…
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Christ and Culture — The Question We Fail to Ask
In their fine book, Exploring Ecclesiology, Harper and Metzger take up the question of Christ and culture in Chapter 13. They use H. Richard Niebuhr’s model of Christ and culture, Christ vs. culture, etc. They also use the model of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and how he stood up against Germany in a time when Germany nationalism was so incredibly strong. Bonhoeffer’s…
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Therapy Over Theology
The Church in America has moved from teaching what is true to teaching what works. Personal growth and satisfaction take precedence over truth. “The ultimate consequence of Christianity centered on personal issues and self-improvement is that theology becomes therapy, the search for righteousness is replaced by the search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, and truth by feeling, and God’s sovereignty…
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Oddly Enough… We ARE Odd!
Mark Galli strikes to the heart of our aversion to being “different” as evangelicals in America. We just want to be dog-gone normal! We want to compete with the local coffee shop or bar. In his column, Galli relates the story of a lawsuit brought by a high school senior who didn’t want the graduation to take place in a…
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The Household of Faith
One of those phrases used constantly over the last several years in pastoral ministry and theology is “missional.” Great word. What does it mean? “We are a missional community.” Great thought. Explain that, will you? What is the Church, the Body of Christ? Part of the community of Christ is we are a place where believers love and serve one…
Category: Church
