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Progression isn’t always good
“Modernity is above all things convinced… that is owes nothing to the past, that it has made itself, that what matters most is what is happening right now. Indeed, this is the meaning of the freedom, power, and progress that we all prize.” — Michael Allen Gillespie quoted in Theology as Retrieval. This actually has a connotation that “post-modernism” still has…
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Dallas Willard on hell
“A part of our problem with understanding hell comes from the way we think about ehaven. We think about heaven as some kind of comfortable resort, but the greatest thing about heaven is going to be the presence of God. He has allowed us to avoid him here on earth in some measure if we want to, but if you go to…
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The church is the hope of the world
Ben Witherington interviews Scot McKnight on McKnight’s new book, A Fellowship of Differents. The interviews I’ve read sound great. This interview in particular draws out a connection between Christ and his Church I think we keep wanting to lose in our American culture. We have too much of this, “I love Jesus, but can’t stand his Church” kind of mentality. Quite…
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Bigness and blessedness
My constant mantra in ministry to keep me somewhat centered on Christ and not just the stuff we do is this: “It’s a both/and world.” It’s analog. It’s digital. It’s huge. It’s small. It’s “attractional.” It’s “missional.” There are simply places for both. In the world. In the church. Yet, in American Christianity, we keep bumping into the same mistake.…
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Why I won’t leave the church
For all the angst out there about evangelicals “leaving church,” and there are good reasons to get disappointed (so don’t get me wrong), Scot McKnight hits another home run in an interview regarding his latest book. When asked about evangelicals “leaving the church” he says this: …as divorce is easy so leaving church is easy. The rugged commitment to one…
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Let’s at least get to the table to talk
What I long for is the honest conversation in the church. I want to drop my misconceptions and just invite a conversation. It’s incredibly difficult. For one, I can’t get those things completely out of my head. I have to work harder at simple listening. For another, when people see me, they see my labels. So, because I’m Pentecostal… or…
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Politics and the Kingdom of God
It is good timing that has me reading NT Wright’s Surprised by Scripture the same week the news is exploding from a new Indiana law regarding discrimination and religious rights. Wright’s chapter, “Our Politics Are Too Small” is powerful. Some thoughts: “…martyrdom (which is what happens when the church bears witness to God’s call to the rulers and the rulers…
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Somehow we’ve turned the good news into bad news
In Simply Good News, Wright goes into far more detail as to how we’ve managed to distort the announcement of the good news of the Kingdom into one of an angry God and simple fragments of a much fuller truth. It is well worth the time to read through his fuller treatment of how we have gone from proclaiming the good news to offering…
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It is simply good news
I am starting into NT Wright’s book, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel is News and What Makes It Good. As usual with Wright at this point in my life, it is refreshing reading. Wright has done such a marvelous job of paring down issues over time. He can be as complicated as the next scholar. Here, he keeps it basic.…
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The moral voice, part 2
Greg Boyd is about as controversial as it can get in the evangelical church. Over the years he’s managed to constantly say something that has upset a lot of evangelical thought. But he raises some incredible points as he shares his personal journey in this video.
Tag: Theology
