As my colleague Fred Sanders noted last week, leading evangelical theologian Donald Bloesch passed away on August 24. Though Fred has already offered an in memoriam on Scriptorium, I feel compelled to do so too. Why? Well, Donald Bloesch was a friend of mine. Don (as he insisted on being called) and I finally met [...]

I imagine most Christians would agree that they would love to see revival come to their local church and, more so, to the worldwide Christian church. In fact, there are still a handful of churches out there that schedule a weekend or week of “revival” meetings each year. Yet most of us have likely never [...]

Last year I wrote a blog about the “Year of the Priest” called by the Roman Catholic Church that began on June 19, 2009. I suggested that it would be a good idea for evangelical pastor-priests to also take a year to reflect on their calling and commitments as “servants of the servants of God” [...]

Every now and then I run across a book where I say, “Wow, that will be really helpful for members of my church.” Gerald McDermott’s The Great Theologians: A Brief Guide (InterVarsity, 2010) is one of those books. As a theologians trained in church history I think that every Christian needs to know the history [...]

In 1841, John Henry Newman wrote the following in his Tract 90, Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nine Articles: “Two important questions, however, [the 39 Articles] does not settle, viz. whether the Church judges, first, at her sole discretion; next, on her sole responsibility, i. e. first, what the media are by which the [...]

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting [...]

Tim Morey’s Embodying our Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church (InterVarsity, 2009) is an enjoyable read. As a reworking of his Fuller Theological Seminary D.Min. thesis, Morey’s text is engaging, his writing style friendly and his content engaging. In seven chapters, Morey gives a well-reasoned defense for what he calls an “œembodied apologetic,” that [...]

I just finished reading Scott Bessenecker’s new book How to Inherit the Earth: Submitting Ourselves to a Servant Savior (InterVarsity Press, 2009). Overall it was a good book, easy to read and understand. According to Bessenecker, most leaders in today’s church have bought into the MONOPOLY™ mindset of leadership. Simply put that means most leaders [...]