What's the meaning of the idiom "blood is thicker than water"? We’ve all heard this idiom, but are you sure you understand it? Read more
What's the meaning of the idiom "blood is thicker than water"? We’ve all heard this idiom, but are you sure you understand it? Read more
People create strategies for dealing with shame. But not all of them are equally beneficial. In fact, some are patently harmful. Read more
I recall sitting in my car one day, pondering the question, “Why do I continue to struggle with lingering shame?” Read more
I previously asked, “Do we always have to talk about hell when we evangelize?” We looked at texts in which Jesus appeals to hell in his teaching. We identified three situations, and none of them resemble the ways that people talk about hell today in evangelistic conversations. In this follow-up post, I’ll direct our attention to texts that directly concern evangelism, places where biblical writers clearly present the gospel. In the process, we’ll see what the Bible frequently means when... Read more
Must we always talk about hell when we evangelize? No. But before you cancel me or spread false rumors about my theology... Read more
Last week, I announced my decision to become the theologian-in-residence for GTN. In that post, I said this: If we want to change the world, … people have to pray for it. people have to pay for it. Today, I’m only focusing on the first line: prayer. To accomplish what we (my partners and I) want to do, we need a lot of prayers because the enemy does not want us to succeed. This means recruiting a prayer support team.... Read more
We made the heart-wrenching decision to close the China chapter of our lives. Twenty years of memories all needed to be sorted from thousands of miles away. Read more
A little over a month ago, I was unexpectedly laid off. Completely surprised, I even laughed and asked if they were joking. They weren’t. Read more
The previous posts explained the differences between bounded-set churches, fuzzy-set churches, and center-set churches. Reviewing Mark Baker’s Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community without Judgmentalism, the second post sketched why these three concepts of the church matter practically. Today, we look at how shame and status dynamics play out within these paradigms. I’ll especially contrast bounded- and centered-set churches. It’s not that fuzzy churches are immune to such concerns, but rather the most relevant implications are more easily seenby comparing... Read more
Mark Baker’s Centered-Set Church is a long-needed resource for Christians who want to reevaluate fundamentally how churches exist. Read more
