How Theological is the “Missional Church”?

Last updated on: June 28, 2012 at 10:15 am By Kyle Roberts

“Missional” has been a buzzword in evangelicalism for a number of years now. It’s been the safer alternative to “emergent.” People from pretty much any evangelical perspective — and beyond — can gather around the notion that God is a “missionary God” and that a primary–if not the primary–purpose of the church is to witness to and serve those outside the church, with a special focus on immediate and surrounding neighborhoods. Missional churches seek to be driven by the specific “DNA”... Read more

Having It All

Last updated on: June 27, 2012 at 8:15 am By Daniel Harrell

The blogs and news sites were abuzz last week following Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” Slaughter, an accomplished academic and foreign policy expert, recently declined to renew a State Department position because of her need and desire to be more available to her teenage sons. As a man, and a husband to a wonderfully competent and capable woman, I know better than to comment on the merits of the article’s assertions. Women hold various positions... Read more

Art after the Fifth Grade and beyond Sunday School

Last updated on: June 26, 2012 at 7:34 am By Daniel A. Siedell

I am in Hyderabad, India to lead a track on arts and ministry design at the YCL (Young Creative Leaders) conference, and I look forward to sharing my reflections on the conference in the weeks to come. But for now, I’ve reprinted (and slightly revised) a book review that appeared in Comment magazine in 2010. It addresses several of the issues that I have raised with Thomas Kinkade, and it will provide a helpful framework for a future reflections,... Read more

Narratives within Narrative

Last updated on: June 25, 2012 at 9:53 am By Wyndy Corbin Reuschling

Much is made about narrative as a way of reading Scripture, as a method for theological reflection, and as a means for ethical discernment and decision. The role of narrative in Christian faith and practice has been helpful and necessary in my view. Yet it is not without difficulties. Our postmodern milieu has raised our awareness of the ways in which an insistence on a single narrative can be dangerous and oppressive for those who have a different take on... Read more

“Am I Not Merciful?” Why “Wrath of God” Language Can be Misleading

Last updated on: June 27, 2012 at 10:02 pm By Kyle Roberts

Gladiator is one of my all-time favorite movies. One of the more memorable scenes, for me, is Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix, pre the infamous Letterman interview), screaming, “Am I not merciful?,” while threatening his sister and her son with their lives. The dramatic irony is that Comedus is not merciful at all. He is a crazed megalomanic who cannot be trusted–only feared. Sometimes, when evangelicals speak of the atonement in a particular way, Emperor Comedus pops in my head. When evangelicals speak... Read more

Did Schaeffer’s Prayer Save a Plane From Crashing? A Little Reflection on “Miracles”

Last updated on: June 21, 2012 at 10:08 am By Kyle Roberts

I recently came across an intriguing story Francis Schaeffer recounted in his book Death in the City. The story was re-posted on a popular Reformed baptist blog. Schaeffer tells of the time he was on a trans-Atlantic flight when the engine seemed to cut out and the plane took a long, seemingly perilous dive toward the ocean. He fervently prayed (as you do). Somehow an SOS alert had gotten out over the radio about the failed engine. His wife and three... Read more

Jerry Be Good

Last updated on: June 19, 2012 at 5:02 pm By Daniel Harrell

I’ve been keeping up a bit on the Jerry Sandusky trial, wondering how it is that a university with such a stellar reputation could have let such (alleged) crimes occur for so long. Perhaps this is how one’s reputation stays stellar for so long—you keep the skeletons buried deep. In a New York Times editorial last Sunday, Maureen Dowd took aim at the Sandusky trial as an opportunity to comment on the issue of failed character. In doing so she... Read more

Concluding Thoughts on Thomas Kinkade

Last updated on: March 23, 2013 at 11:18 am By Daniel A. Siedell

Thomas Kinkade has been an easy target for art critics. But my decision to write about his work, with “The Dark Light of Thomas Kinkade” and the “The Final Word on Thomas Kinkade,” was an attempt to explore a different path toward understanding the challenges that it posed to my work as an art critic and as a cultural theologian. I spent last week responding to nearly two hundred comments from my first post, most of them very critical of... Read more

Advice for a New Father – from a Rookie

Last updated on: June 18, 2012 at 10:34 am By Kyle Roberts

A friend and former student of mine (and currently youth pastor extraordinaire), recently suggested that I offer up a few nuggets of wisdom–or at least advice– as he anticipates the birth of his first child in a few weeks. He was probably joking, but I decided to take him up on it anyway. The caveat is that I’m still quite new at this whole fatherhood thing myself. Plus, since I’m not particularly wise, much of this will be pretty basic and... Read more

Billy Joel, George R. R. Martin, and Job

Last updated on: June 15, 2012 at 8:39 am By Daniel Harrell

Guest blogger Dawn Duncan Harrell is author of Ten Ways to Pray. You can find her at dawnduncanharrell.com. Locked You Away My sister thought we were a bunch of boring, goody-two-shoes and we needed to diversify our image. She was right. I didn’t drink or watch R-rated movies until I was in seminary. We were four siblings, all women, and our idea of “bad” was howling Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young” as we disobeyed the speed limit on... Read more