“The Spirit Didn’t Move”: Passion Conference Scandalized

Last updated on: October 25, 2016 at 4:52 pm By Brad Vaughn

If you haven’t read The Babylon Bee, you can fix that by clicking here. For everyone else, here is my own attempt at writing a Babylon Bee article. “The Spirit Didn’t Move”: Passion Conference Scandalized Scandal erupts after the latest installment of Passion Conferences. Louie Giglio told the media, “The Spirit didn’t move. I don’t know what happened.” Spectators gave testimony about the Spirit’s silence. College senior Aaron Law said, “It’s obvious the lead worshipers didn’t find the micro-center... Read more

Honor and Shame in Judgment

Last updated on: December 14, 2016 at 5:46 pm By Brad Vaughn

If you emphasize honor and shame, does this mean that you need to minimize the theme of “judgment” in the Bible? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, some people have that impression. They seem to think that judgment is a legal idea and so unrelated to honor and shame. In this post, I’ll show you a number of passages that illustrate how the Bible describes judgment via honor-shame. The Shame of Judgment Everything a person can say about judgment from a traditional perspective... Read more

Interesting stuff in Themelios (Dec 2016)

Last updated on: December 7, 2016 at 10:16 am By Brad Vaughn

This month’s Themelios has multiple interesting articles and reviews of noteworthy books. I was fortunately able to contribute two book reviews of my own. Article I’d be curious to hear people’s opinions about Fred Farrokh’s article, The “Same God Question”: Why Muslims are Not Moving Toward Christians Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? This “Same God Question” has again captured the attention of the Christian public. Increasing numbers of Christians are now responding in the affirmative, especially as... Read more

Honor and Shame are Objective (Not Merely Subjective)

Last updated on: April 20, 2021 at 1:49 am By Brad Vaughn

Many Christians think honor and shame are simply subjective categories. The Bible disagrees. Scripture uses the concepts of honor-shame to convey objective realities. Unfortunately, this observation often gets overlooked. In recent weeks and months, I’ve seen this time and time again. I regularly receive push-back from people who think shame and honor are nothing more than psychological and anthropological terms. Honor = Glory = Objective Reality If you care about what the Bible says, I urge you to set aside... Read more

Responding to “White Privilege” in Missions

Last updated on: November 17, 2016 at 8:38 pm By Brad Vaughn

How do we practically respond to “white privilege”? We first considered how to talk about the issue and then how we should understand the “white privilege” from a Christian perspective. I suggested we need to focus on how to use one’s privileges (whatever they might be) in order to help others enjoy the same opportunities. No single solution will achieve this goal since prejudice and privilege manifest in multiple ways at different times. In this post, I simply offer suggestions... Read more

Honor-Shame Conference 2107 at Wheaton: Registration NOW OPEN

Last updated on: November 17, 2016 at 8:37 pm By Brad Vaughn

It’s official! You can now register for “Honor, Shame, & the Gospel“—the Honor-Shame Network Conference at Wheaton College, June 2017! The price of $309 is all-inclusive—the conference, lodging, meals and snacks. Register soon because the price increases every 50 registrants! This event will help you go deeper into the topic of honor and shame through collaborating, networking, and learning. Key topics will include: patronage, evangelism, discipleship, leadership, spirituality, contextualization. To learn more, visit www.honorshame-conference.com or download this PDF flyer. After you register, click attend... Read more

The Gospel of the Kingdom (video)

Last updated on: November 16, 2016 at 12:01 pm By Brad Vaughn

In light of the recent election, I can think of few videos more fitting to encourage our hearts. In case you haven’t see it, this is SO, SO good. For more amazing videos like this, check out https://jointhebibleproject.com. Save Read more

Thank God for “White Privilege” in Missions?

Last updated on: November 16, 2016 at 12:00 pm By Brad Vaughn

Someone asked me to speak more directly to the issue of “white privilege.” Previously, I responded to an American-born Chinese woman who complained of white privilege among missionaries. My article highlighted two big ideas. 1) Communication We need to rethink how to communicate ideas about “white privilege” and related subjects. We need to define our terms clearly. We should have a generous spirit, particularly when speaking about missionaries who intentionally serve people from other cultures. 2) Causation Not everything can... Read more

Trump supporters are not put to shame

Last updated on: November 10, 2016 at 4:20 pm By Brad Vaughn

During election coverage, one commentator rightly stated Trump’s victory does not represent the opposition of political ideologies; rather, it juxtaposes competing subcultures within America. The working underclass are pitted against the cultural elites. The underclass regards the latter as proponents of a larger cultural agenda typified by everything that goes by the name “political correctness” (and sometimes “tolerance”). The political correctness movement uses shame to impose its standards. Its enforcers largely consist of those who ascribe to what Emmett Rensin... Read more

Do We Foster Humility and Hutzpah?

Last updated on: November 9, 2016 at 5:36 am By Brad Vaughn

Previously, I claimed that good contextualization requires two things: humility and hutzpah. In this post, we want to ask a simple question, How are we doing? Do evangelicals encourage the people to have the humility and hutzpah to contextualize? Do we foster these qualities? It might be harder than you think to develop humility and hutzpah for the sake of contextualization. In some respects, it contradicts the ethos of much evangelical thinking. How so? Evangelicals are rightly keen to protect... Read more