I’m memorizing this response from Patrick Mead. It’ll come in handy some day I’m sure. A couple was furious with our church. We had gone to see what happened to them after someone noticed they’d been gone from our worship assembly for some time. “We aren’t coming back,” the husband said. “That is an unloving, […]
I Think I May Be a Crunchy Con
I’ve been glued to Rod Dreher’s book, Crunchy Cons. It was given to me by a friend who kept recommending it and could tell that I wasn’t going to read it unless he bought it for me. By the way, if you can perfect such a response to all book recommendations, you can get a […]
April 25, 2006 by
The Last Word
Here are a few of my favorite passages from The Last Word. Much would-be Christian thought (including much would-be “biblical” Christian thought) in the last two hundred years has tacitly conceded these huge claims, turning “Kingdom of God” into “the hope for heaven after death” and treating Jesus’s death, at the most, as the mechanism […]
April 19, 2006 by 11 Comments
The Logic of Evangelism
Yesterday at the Tulsa Emergent Cohort we talked about evangelism. I tried to stoke the conversation by bringing some quotes from one of the best books on evangelism I’ve read: The Logic of Evangelism by William J. Abraham. What is especially striking is the way in which the gospel of the kingdom initially spread. It […]
January 13, 2006 by 4 Comments
Equipping is Not Delegating
Here are some important words from R. Paul Stevens that I return to every couple of months because I need this reminder: Equipping is not delegating. Pastors think they are equipping the laity when they delegate certain parts of their ministry to laypersons. For example, a pastor my not personally enjoy doing premarital counseling, so […]
January 11, 2006 by 5 Comments
Getting the Most Important Things Done
David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, has a blog. He linked to a great article by Paul Grahahm on procrastination that talks about the difference between good and bad procrastination. Some things need to be put off, but others can’t afford to be. Just because you get all the items on your to-do list […]
January 8, 2006 by 1 Comment
Kierkegaard on the NT
This quote from SK brought me up short. The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be able to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any […]
November 28, 2005 by 6 Comments
Relational, Relational, Relational
From Marvin Wilson’s Our Father Abraham: Jewish anthropologist Raphael Patai has observed that because the Hebrews liked the concrete and tended to avoid the abstract, the idea of doctrinal formulation was alien to their mind. In Hebrew thought the essence of true godliness is tied primarily to a relationship, not a creed. . . .For […]
October 14, 2005 by 7 Comments
Rob Bell on Missions
Here’s a great definition of missions from Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis. Missions is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there. It is almost as if being a good missionary means having really good eyesight. Or maybe it means […]
September 14, 2005 by 8 Comments
I Can Identify With This
I saw the following quote in Christianity Today this morning. It’s taken from “A Shy Person’s Guide to the Practice of Evangelism” by Steven C. Bonsey. Let’s pretend that you are someone who might be willing, in theory, at some point, possibly, to consider maybe doing something that, while not “evangelism”-type evangelism, still could be […]
August 19, 2005 by 10 Comments
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons