Junia is Not Alone

December 2, 2011 By scotmcknight 67 Comments

I’ve got a new e-book available, and it’s called Junia is Not Alone.

It’s cheap: only $2.99. It’s so new at Amazon there’s no cover on the Amazon page yet. The cover is now posted at Amazon.

This is my first adventure into the e-book world, and so this is an exciting day. The book is published through Patheos Press, the host of my blog.

What’s  Junia is Not Alone about?

It’s about Junia from Romans 16:7. It tells the story of Junia in the history of the Bible, and it shows how her story mirrors the story of women in the Bible, in the history of the church, and in our current world where many women are finding their voice.

Take a look at it and help us spread the word about this book.

If you’re unfamiliar with ebooks, they’re quite easy to read — for instance, you can download a FREE Kindle reading app to your PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone.

 

Filed Under: Women and Ministry 67 Comments

Ohio Removes Child from Home for…

December 2, 2011 By scotmcknight 15 Comments

… obesity. Have you seen this?

What do you think?

CLEVELAND — An Ohio third-grader who weighs more than 200 pounds has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn’t doing enough to control his weight.

The Plain Dealer reports (http://bit.ly/t68M7D ) that the Cleveland 8-year-old is considered severely obese and at risk for such diseases as diabetes and hypertension.

The case is the first state officials can recall of a child being put in foster care strictly for a weight-related issue.

Lawyers for the mother say the county overreached when authorities took the boy last week. They say the medical problems he is at risk for do not yet pose an imminent danger.

A spokeswoman says the county removed the child because caseworkers saw his mother’s inability to reduce his weight as medical neglect.

Filed Under: Uncategorized 15 Comments

25 Years Later

December 2, 2011 By scotmcknight 2 Comments

My friend, Fr Rob Merola, in the DC area St Matthew’s Sterling, wrote a wonderful post about his twenty-five years of ministry, and it’s not a little moving for Kris and me because Rob and his wife (then fellow student) Linda did some babysitting for our children when they were small.

Today is the 25th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. It seems like in the course of that time, I should have learned something about my craft, and I’d like to think I have. So I spent some time reflecting on this, and here is some of what I came up with.

1. When I look back over the years, it’s not so much “my accomplishments” that I remember. It’s the people. I think if was going to give my newly ordained self some advice, I think I’d say, “Don’t worry so much about being a visionary, or being relevant, or finding strategies to grow your church. Just love the people God brings your way, and love them well.”

2. The more “in-step” with my calling I’ve been, the more “out-of-step” I’ve been with the culture around me. Maybe another way of saying that is that being hip isn’t worth it. Being true is. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Pastoring and Leading, Pastoring and Preaching 2 Comments

This Denies the Gospel

December 2, 2011 By scotmcknight 24 Comments

The gospel is that Jesus is the Messiah/King and Lord of all, and he is so on the basis of faith — not works, not ethnic identity, not sexual identity, and not economic identity. As Paul expresses the impact of the gospel in Galatians 3:28, we are all one in Christ. But this church has denied the gospel by prohibiting interracial marriage and prohibiting such from exercising God-given gifts and church membership. Shame on them.

A small Kentucky church has chosen to ban marriages and even some worship services for interracial couples. The Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, located in Pike County, made the vote in response to a longtime member who is engaged to a man whose birthplace is in Zimbabwe.

Other pastoral leaders in the area were quick to denounce the church’s vote. “It’s not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form,” Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

A copy of the recommendation, obtained by WYMT, reads in part:

That the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage. Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals. All are welcome [whatever that means now] to our public worship services. This recommendation is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone [but it's getting mighty close], but is intended to promote greater unity [which it is destroying] among the church body [which it is severing] and the community we serve [which will have no prophetic voice about racism at this church].

Members of the church held a vote on Thompson’s proposed language, with nine voting in favor and six voting against. The other members in attendance chose not to vote.

Filed Under: Uncategorized 24 Comments

Gospel Unity

December 2, 2011 By scotmcknight 10 Comments

There is no genuine institutional unity in the Church today; there is no genuine doctrinal unity in the Church today. But there is one place where there could definitely be more unity: around the gospel. Ted Campbell, in his splendid book The Gospel in Christian Traditions, makes the case that the gospel could be a unifying force in the Church. And in my King Jesus Gospel I seek to outline an understanding of the gospel that was the heart and provided the unity for the early church and shaped the New Testament itself.

A recommendation for pastors: Why not organize some pastors across the spectrum to discuss gospel as a source of unity? And I would urge you to use my book as well as Ted Campbell’s. What do you think: Can the apostolic gospel of 1 Corinthians 15 (etc) provide unity for churches?

A friend sent me Eastern Orthodoxy’s Father Patrick Reardon’s Pastoral Ponderings on Advent [the last I looked they haven't archived this newest pondering], and his pondering was on the gospel and the significance of the Old Testament for that gospel.

November 27, 2011
Second Sunday of Advent

Father Pat’s Pastoral Ponderings

Since the theology of Redemption takes its rise from the Gospel itself, it is reasonable to start with the Gospel in order to discern its direction, method, structure, and content.

The Apostle Paul indicated this approach when he described his initial message to the Corinthians: “I delivered to you—as of primary importance—that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized 10 Comments

For and Against Calvinism 12

December 2, 2011 By scotmcknight 62 Comments

Roger Olson is right: at the heart of the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism (or non-Calvinism) is this question: Is grace resistible or irresistible? To this end, I will begin a new series Monday (so come back to see what it will be about). But today’s post is Roger’s chp “Yes to Grace: No to Irresistible Grace/Monergism.”

I will put my cards on the table first: I believe those Calvinists who push hard for irresistible or effectual grace sketch a God who coerces and I am convinced, regardless of their contentions, that they effectively (and effectually) deny free will. If grace is irresistible, it is not chosen; if it is irresistible, humans aren’t free to say No to God. If that it is the case, … time to move to Roger’s chp.

Do you think irresistible grace is defensible morally? Does it deny free will for it to be true? If you and I were capable of saving an orphanage full of children who were starving and we chose instead to save only some, would we be called good? [Where does this analogy break down?]

Big one: If grace is resistible, is high Calvinism undermined? [I think it is.]

We are doing this series on Roger Olson’s Against Calvinism and Michael Horton’s For Calvinism. Monergism is the “belief that salvation is all God’s doing from beginning to end without any cooperation from the person being saved other than what God instills in that person” (156). That is, “God bends the elect person’s will so that he or she wants to come to Jesus with repentance and faith” (156). Since humans are dead in sins, since humans are incapable of turning to God, any turning or sign of life is God’s own doing. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Calvinism 62 Comments