• What we don’t do

    I am reading Richard Foster’s book on humility at the same time I am reading my way through Revelation as part of my daily office. Revelation 2-3, along with Foster’s book, remind me of two things we deeply lack in the American Church, which is reflecting too much of our current cultural problems.

  • Why we care so little for humility

    Richard Foster titled his new book: Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue. It makes more sense as I think back over the past few years in our culture and in the world.

  • Humility is NOT worthlessness

    Humility is to see things as they are. It isn’t to think of oneself as a worthless worm who God reluctantly redeemed. It is to fix our heart on God’s worth—which is the literal definition of worship—and know our worth in light of God’s worth. Jesus could be lowly and humble of heart because he knew who and whose he was. He had…

  • Learning Humility

    I remember a saying I probably first heard in high school: “Humility is the virtue of which I am most proud.” Another thought is: “Just when you think you’ve attained humility… you lost it.”

  • Pentecostal Orthodoxy — real presence

    “While others have come to the concept of real presence through faith and or propositional biblical truths, I came to real presence through experience.” — Emilio Alvarez, Pentecostal Orthodoxy

  • Change is going to come

    One of the fun things in my life right now is working with organizations who are touching the “least of these.” Lately I’ve been meeting with folks who have found passion for change in a particular area of society. They are invested with passion and look for true change to come. They are in it for the long haul. As…

  • The “fad” of liturgy

    Early on in my journey into a more liturgical life I remember reading from other friends on Facebook about their exploration into liturgical worship. I remember when I was “hooked” by the Eucharist. Others, the more I read, really liked the typical “evangelical” worship model (concert level professional worship, topical sermons), but when they wanted some quiet, they loved going…

  • Pentecostal Orthodoxy — I had been playing around

    My reading has me in Emilio Alvarez’s new work: Pentecostal Orthodoxy: Toward an Ecumenism of the Spirit. As I am in the early pages, I find myself evaluating where I was on my personal timeline compared to Alvarez. There are a few conclusions I draw from my timeline.

  • Who was the neighbor

    As I make my way through the end of the year in the daily readings, I am struck over and over by what IS in the Gospel and by what is NOT. The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 strikes that chord yet again. What is it to have eternal life? It is to love God and love…

  • Pentecostalism and the ancient church faith

    Pentecostal Orthodoxy is out and I am here for it. Emilio Alvarez hits home for me: If you are a Pentecostal and you find yourself tired of solely identifying yourself with ripped-jeans, muscle-shirt preachers with $100 haircuts and heavily tinted beard; if you find yourself tired of moralistic therapy accompanied by emotional, performance-based worship devoid of godly and heavenly revelation;…