I’m Done Dating Jesus Online

May 10, 2012 By Kurt Willems 29 Comments

© 2010 Sammis Reachers , Flickr | creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Maybe you’ve seen the commercials for the various online dating sites. The latest claim is that 1 in 5 relationships begin on an online hook-up hub. Those stats seem exaggerated at best, but that doesn’t negate the fact that I can think of at least 2 different friends who are now married because of a dating relationship that began online.

If a relationship begins on the web, for it to authentically lead to a “real” romance, incarnated flames must eventually test disembodied sparks of interest. You can’t get married on the internet.

Over the past few years, I’ve become a social media guy. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and websites almost every day. At times, I spend hours interacting with others and producing web-content about Jesus. This sort of engagement stimulates my mind and pushes me to explore the intricacies of Christianity within Western culture. The internet is a gift to my faith.

However, I’ve noticed a subtle and dangerous tendency. To explain, maybe an analogy will help. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Confessions, Faith Journey, Kingdom of God, Missional, Spirituality Tagged With: , , , , , , 29 Comments

Should Kids Join their Parents in Church Services or Go to “Childrens’ Church”?

May 17, 2012 By Kurt Willems 9 Comments

© 2010 Michael Swan, Flickr | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

*A Guest Post: Evelyn Sweerts is a mother of four and part-time Theology for Ministry student living semi-rurally in Luxembourg.

We’re out for a family meal in our local Italian restaurant. A mixed-age group comes in. The adults sit down at one end of the table to talk; the kids whip out their PSPs and play in silence at the other end. Nothing extraordinary, completely logical and … depressing. But then, I’m a firm believer in the importance of family meals where everyone participates.

I sometimes wonder whether by having nursery and Sunday school we aren’t actually setting up an identical situation at church. The grown-ups share a conversation and a meal (the Word and the Eucharist) while the under 18s need to be ‘entertained’. This risks sending some or all of the following damaging messages to the young ones: you’re not capable of handling this situation; you’re not welcome; you should be doing something more fun than church (subtext: church is boring).

Some questions for you to ponder / answer: Should we expect kids to behave in church or should we be ‘entertaining’ them? If the latter, in church with books and cookies or with Children’s Church elsewhere? Is it reasonable to ask adults in church to be tolerant of noise and other disruptive child-like behavior? How tolerant? If you have kids, what do you do, or do you wish you could do? If you don’t, what’s your perspective? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Church Ministry, Guest Contributors Tagged With: , , , , 9 Comments

Evolving Evangelicalism (part 8): Adam and Eve are historical?

May 17, 2012 By Kurt Willems 5 Comments

The following series is based on my senior paper for Seminary. You may remember a video where I invited people to contribute their stories to help make my case. For the next couple weeks, I’ve decided to share my findings with you all. There will be a “thesis/problem” section, a “biblical theology” section, and an “application” section. I hope you will read along and share this with others! You can read the rest of the series here.
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Theological Approaches to Adam and Eve

We now move to a second area of concern for many evangelicals: Adam and Eve. Two problems evolution cause for Christians are: 1) to have been made in the image of God, it seems right that Adam and Eve needed to result from a special creation; and 2) if Adam is dismissed as non-historical, this minimizes Paul’s view that Christ saves humanity as the “second Adam.”

First, as we discussed above and will investigate in-part below, to bear God’s image identifies humankind with a particular vocation and intrinsic worth. This role in God’s good world does not require that Adam and Eve were the first humans, specially created from the dust. In fact, the text demonstrates something entirely different is at work in Genesis 2. [Read more...]

Filed Under: (Series) Evolving Evangelicalism, Evolution, Interpretation, Theology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

I Kissed a Girl and Went to Hell??? (Church Sign)

May 16, 2012 By Kurt Willems 13 Comments

This is funny in so far that it demonstrates how ridiculous and disconnected churches can be… so much so, that its laughable. Ridiculous! It spews judgment and the kind of cultural back and forth that fails to be constructive. What do you think?

Source: Divine Caroline | Click image for original source

For my thoughts on Hell, go here.

Filed Under: Culture, Fundamentalism 13 Comments

Evolving Evangelicalism (part 7): 7 days are 7 24-hr days… sort of

May 16, 2012 By Kurt Willems 3 Comments

© 2007 Brian , Flickr | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

The following series is based on my senior paper for Seminary. You may remember a video where I invited people to contribute their stories to help make my case. For the next couple weeks, I’ve decided to share my findings with you all. There will be a “thesis/problem” section, a “biblical theology” section, and an “application” section. I hope you will read along and share this with others! You can read the rest of the series here.
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Evolving Evangelicalism: Inviting Church Leaders to Refine their Approach to Scripture and Origins (part 7)

The Cosmos as God’s Temple and the 7 Days of Creation

Having placed Genesis 1 within a functional ontology, we are now free to re-imagine its relation to science. This particular text is clearly not about the beginning of materiality (this does not mean that God is not the source of materiality – this was already implicit to Israel). We now look to the issue of the 7-days of creation in Genesis 1. Are these days that represent long epochs of time (as in the Day-Age Theory), or are they representative of 24-hour periods? For those frustrated with methods that attempt to make day denote a long time, I agree with you. A day in Genesis 1 is a day. What we often fail to notice, however, is the purpose of framing the functional creation around a 7-day liturgical pattern. Understanding the purpose of the 7-day pattern is now our focus. [Read more...]

Filed Under: (Series) Evolving Evangelicalism, Evolution, Interpretation, Theology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments
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