Choose Door #1 or #2: Door #1: This morning when I got up, I got my first cup of coffee and sat down with my daily devotional. In today’s entry I read: “The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it must reveal that I am unholy; but it also awakens an intense craving” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest). Okay. I resonate with that. I know what he means. Then I read this within the same... Read more

Last Sunday this was part of my text: “In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me, ‘Flee like a bird to the mountains… If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11). I tried to explain that, when things really go wrong (“the foundations are destroyed”), sometimes we are tempted to flee, to employ different forms of denial and escape. I said that the mountains we sometimes escape to are not always conventional…... Read more

10 things I did today that had nothing to do with ministry: Body Removed. Due to the irreligous content of this post, we, the Canadian Council For Religious Content, have had it removed. We wish to thank those who informed us of the author’s violations of the Religious Blogs Criteria. Read more

Jack Good, in his book The Dishonest Church, says: “Respect means recognition by the pastor that people have moved beyond the early stages of cognitive development and are ready to think more broadly” (p. 97). I sometimes wonder if Good makes the assumption that spiritual growth means believing different things… to include other ideas and different facts and theologies. I believe this is a part of growth, but not necessarily. Rather, isn’t it possible that spiritual growth may be thinking... Read more

I don’t read that much fiction. But, being a fan of John Updike, I had to read his most recent, TERRORIST. I’d recommend it. It kept me turning the pages. It is the story of 18-year-old Ahmad, a Muslim American. As one critic writes, “Ahmad has decided to be purer than the Koran. He will be used by the Yemeni imam who insinuates him through the suras and by the Lebanese furniture salesmen who employ him to drive the truck... Read more

Please be patient as I endeavor to get my new blog presentation up and running. It will have a new and frrrrrrrrrresh appearance under the title of “churchpundit: thinking, unthinking and rethinking the church”. Stay tuned. I just started studying another book I’ve been looking forward to reading: Jim Wallis, God’s Politics. Why The Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It. So far so good! Here’s one excellent quote I wholeheartedly agree with (ya, I read ahead... Read more

Another conspiracy theory to whet your appetites! Listen on all you evil pastors and stupid lay people!: “Church officials assume that lay people who are illiterate in scriptural matters will continue (as long as they reamin in the church at all) to be placid, and that they will be satisfied with the often shallow interpretations of preselected scriptures they hear each Sunday… I sense that somewhere, hidden perhaps in the subconscious of church officials, is a fear that lay persons... Read more

If you want to read a long but excellent essay from beliefnet on How The Gnostic Jesus Became the Christ of Scholars, written by the scholar Philip Jenkins, click here. I think it is important to read this article, especially in light of Harpur’s The Pagan Christ. Take a look from another angle! Read more

Speaking as a pastor again, here is something I am thinking about: the church. Duh! Yes, I’m still reading Jack Good’s book, The Dishonest Church. But aside from that, I continue to think about the church with love and concern. In an earlier blog, I referred to my teenagers and the younger generation in general. How will they compose the church? Where’s their place? Are we presenting a Jesus that the youth will be curious about? My oldest son, who... Read more