Interview with Christine Dillon (Part 2)

Last updated on: November 23, 2015 at 3:46 am By Brad Vaughn

This the second half of my interview with Christine Dillon, a church planter in Taiwan with OMF International. We talk about storying in relation to honor-shame. Christine has written Telling the Gospel through Story: Evangelism that Keeps People Wanting More as well as 1-2-1 Discipleship. She has an excellent blog, which has been translated into other languages including Mandarin. Honor and Shame JW: What are some stories that have honor-shame significance but typically might get overlooked? CD: We all see... Read more

Can We Escape the Hermeneutical Spiral?

Last updated on: January 5, 2016 at 3:17 pm By Brad Vaughn

Over at Reformed Margins, Andrew Ong has posted a generous and constructive review of my book One Gospel for All Nations. Reading reviews of your own book always leads to mixed feelings. People sometimes misrepresent your thoughts or nitpick small details. However, I truly appreciate Andrew’s thoughtful comments. His balance and breadth of understanding of the related issues demonstrates why he is PhD student in World Christianity under Andrew Chow at the University of Edinburgh. Although he gives a kind... Read more

Interview with Christine Dillon (Part 1)

Last updated on: January 5, 2016 at 3:17 pm By Brad Vaughn

Today, I interview Christine Dillon, a church planter in Taiwan with OMF International. We talk about storying in relationship to contextualization and honor-shame. Christine has written Telling the Gospel through Story: Evangelism that Keeps People Wanting More as well as 1-2-1 Discipleship. She has an excellent blog, which has been translated into other languages including Mandarin. CONTEXTUALIZATION JW: There is a difference between biblestorying and using stories as illustrations for the big points in our systematic theology. Could you help... Read more

Two Advantages of Storying in Honor-Shame Cultures

Last updated on: November 23, 2015 at 3:42 am By Brad Vaughn

Today’s post comes from guest blogger Christine Dillon, a church planter in Taiwan with OMF International. Christine has written Telling the Gospel through Story: Evangelism that Keeps People Wanting More as well as 1-2-1 Discipleship. She has an excellent blog, which has been translated into other languages including Mandarin. Jackson recently came to share on “honour and shame” at our conference. As he shared about this theme, it became obvious that most of us share the good news in the way... Read more

Giving a Preview of the Kingdom

Last updated on: December 21, 2015 at 11:19 am By Brad Vaughn

Here’s a short video interviewing my friend and doctoral supervisor, Bruce Ashford, about his recent book Every Square Inch:An Introduction to Cultural Engagement for Christians. In my favorite part of the video, he reiterates something he said in an interview with Christianity Today: One of the ways I help people get started making culture and engaging with their cultural contexts is to teach them to ask three questions. These three questions can be asked and answered when we find ourselves... Read more

Not Even Israel Worshiped the Same God

Last updated on: December 16, 2016 at 12:26 pm By Brad Vaughn

Most evangelicals seem to agree––Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God. The question I want to ask is simply, “Why?” When Wheaton suspended a teacher who thought otherwise, countless evangelicals spoke out to defend the school’s decision. Most people gave theological arguments, claiming that God’s nature were irreconcilable with Islamic views of God. For example, the one true God exists in three persons––Father, Son and Spirit. While these are legitimate considerations, I will suggest a more directly biblical... Read more

Is there room to disagree about Adam?

Last updated on: December 21, 2015 at 12:23 pm By Brad Vaughn

I came across this debate over at Books and Culture regarding the historicity and importance of Adam. For Christians in China, conversations about Genesis are regular occurrences because of the prevalence of teaching about evolution. John Walton, who wrote an important book I reviewed this past year, had a very clear and cogent statement that I think should provoke some good discussion. I am certainly curious to hear what you think. We can contend that Adam and Eve are theologically... Read more

Why suspended professor says, “We worship the same God.”

Last updated on: December 16, 2016 at 12:26 pm By Brad Vaughn

Christianity Today reports that Wheaton suspended a teacher, Larycia Alaine Hawkins, for her explanation as to why she is wearing a hijab during Advent season. She said, “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.” Wheaton said their actions are “in response to significant questions regarding the theological implications of statements that [Hawkins] made about the relationship of Christianity... Read more

We marry better than we evangelize

Last updated on: December 16, 2015 at 8:36 am By Brad Vaughn

Suppose you are a single 20-something. Your friends tell you about a woman named Jesse, whom they think would be a great match for you. They go on and on about all her good points. They tell you that she’s smart, beautiful, conversational, honest, comes from a good family, is low maintenance yet seeks excellence in all she does. After a solid 5 minutes or more of this, they finally ask the big question, “So, are you willing to marry... Read more

2015 ETS talks now online

Last updated on: December 16, 2015 at 8:22 pm By Brad Vaughn

Just a quick note–– I found out that the recording for this year’s ETS talks have just been put online. There’s a lot of good ones to choose from. If you’d like to hear my presentations, you can go see them by clicking here. If you others who would be interesting in hearing any of this year’s ETS talks, pass this along. Read more