In Preaching Biblical Wisdom in a Self-Help Society Alyce McKenzie writes: I bumped into an acquaintance from church recently browsing in the self-help section of the local Barnes and Nobles bookstore. She was scanning book spines with titles I wish I’d thought of like Getting Over Getting Older, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, Pulling Your […]

Andrew Jones has given me a new phrase to add to my vocabulary: Residual Church “Residual Church: The existing church that remains, that has existed and functioned previously and the impact of which still remains. The early church in the Book of Acts (emerging at the time) was influenced by the synagogue structure, secular assemblies […]

In the latest issue of the Mars Hill Review, there is an article by John Sexton entitled “The Argument from Story.” The journal’s summary of the article is as follows: The author reviews the classic arguments given by philosophers for the existence of God and proposes another argument that apologists have overlooked: the argument from […]

Yesterday, when I got home, Caleb, my two-year-old, said, “Daddy I put candy up my nose.” He was very proud of it, and he was seeking my approval. Not wanting to give him a “father wound” this early in life I congratulated him on his accomplishment. Turns out it was an orange Smartie. Heather said […]

Tremper Longman has written a helpful book on Proverbs. On page 77 he writes: This study of the similarities between the advice given in the biblical book and ancient Near Eastern wisdom also makes concrete what we read in 1 Kings 4, that the sages of Israel lived and studied in an international setting. It […]

Tonight I’m wrapping up my class on the Kingdom of God by unpacking the Lord’s prayer. I take it to be the single best summary of Jesus’ Kingdom message we have in the gospels. If we prayed it slowly and sincerely on a daily basis, rather than mindlessly flying through it, it would change the […]

I didn’t preach this past Sunday. Instead, I worked in the 2-year-old nursery. Our assembly lasts about an hour and a half. The first hour the kids were great. In the last thirty minutes meltdowns started to happen. I was really glad to see the parents start showing up to pick up their kids. Afterwards […]

I just finished a yoga workout that I have on video. It’s only about the third time I’ve done it and the first time in about three months. I’m can’t believe how much yoga makes me sweat. I think it’s because I’m worried about falling over and breaking something (like my one year old) during […]

Does Science Matter? Through its rituals of discovery, science has extended life, conquered disease and offered new sexual and commercial freedoms. It has pushed aside demigods and demons and revealed a cosmos more intricate and awesome than anything produced by pure imagination. But there are new troubles in the peculiar form of paradise that science […]

I’ve had several people ask me recently about The Da Vinci Code. I listened to the audiobook this summer and wasn’t overly impressed. The stortelling was decent, but wasn’t as riveting as people were saying. Then again, I had from the beginning a ho hum attitude toward the supposed secret history of Christianity. Here is […]