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Vegas, Baby!
I am fresh off a trip to Las Vegas. I haven’t been there in about 15 years. Another 15 years is just fine with me. Business took me out there the first time. This time it was the Kiwanis International Convention. Vegas is still quite the place. I find myself completely mystified as to why people are attracted to this…
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Our Allegiance
I am patriotic as anyone. I still cry when they play, “God Bless the USA” at a ballgame. The question of allegiance is interesting, though. This post by Michael Gorman again raises the issue of our Christianity and our allegiances. Just a question: Do you pledge allegiance to the flag? Is it a civil religion that clashes with our allegiance…
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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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Book Review — Exploring Ecclesiology
When Society for Pentecostal Studies was at North Central University earlier this year, I purchased Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction by Brad Harper and Robert Louis Metzger. Over the past couple of years I have been stirred to learn more on the subject of ecclesiology. This book has become a primer for me. After 20 plus years in…
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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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Passion
Father’s Day is coming up, so I’m going to take a moment and brag. I love being a father. My whole life is shifting in that role as my oldest son is getting married this fall, my middle son prepares for his senior year in high school, and my youngest becomes a sophomore. I could brag on each son endlessly.…
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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…
