Preaching Judgment Without Being a Jerk

July 19, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

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 in evangelism?

July 12, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

Must we always talk about hell when we evangelize? No. But before you cancel me or spread false rumors about my theology... Read more

Will you pray to change the world?

July 6, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

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

Chinese Christians Have Faith in the Wilderness. Will We?

July 5, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

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

I was laid off, but not by God (a personal update)

June 27, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

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

Shame and Status in Centered Set Churches

June 21, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

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

Being and Becoming a Centered-Set Church

June 14, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

Mark Baker’s Centered-Set Church is a long-needed resource for Christians who want to reevaluate fundamentally how churches exist. Read more

Three Basic Paradigms that Define Church

June 7, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

People use three paradigms to define and describe churches. One can intuitively see that the model has significant and practical implications. Read more

The IMB and SBC must lose face to give God face

May 31, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

When I wrote the post explaining why I left the SBC and IMB, I intended to leave it there. But then the president of the IMB called my boss. Read more

Paul Defends the Status of Women in 1 Corinthians 11

May 24, 2022 By Brad Vaughn

While people debate 1 Corinthians 11, all agree that honor and shame play a critical role in its interpretation. Peppiatt says the key is recognizing Paul's rhetorical strategy when defending the status of women. Read more