If you are total pragmatist when it comes to ministry, you won’t like this book. If you are a theologian-pastor type, you may well love Andrew Purves, The Resurrection of Ministry: Serving in the Hope of the Risen Lord . Purves’ earlier book, which we blogged through, was called The Crucifixion of Ministry: Surrendering Our Ambitions to the Service of Christ , and this one takes us from Good Friday, coaxes us away from dwelling in a Holy Saturday ministry, and... Read more

Brad Lomenick, leader of the wonderful Catalyst organization, and Gabe Lyons, leader of the Q conference … both had their conferences within about a week and I was at both. Catalyst was at Mariner’s Church in Newport Beach (first time being there for me) and Q was at the Chicago Civic Opera (first time being there too).  Not only are these special events for so many Christian leaders in the USA, but they were special for me because in both... Read more

Prayers include prayers for God to act in justice. So the psalmist goes at it, and this prayer reminds me some of the Magnificat: it’s not vindication or vengeance so much as it is balancing the scales. The confidence of the psalmist is that God takes notice; in fact, God always takes notice of the oppressed (10:14). The psalmist cares about the fatherless and the oppressed, and knows God cares for the fatherless and the oppressed. I mention here The... Read more

Justice, Judgment, “Soul Sort Narratives,” and Love In my post on Brian McLaren’s “Soul Sort Narrative,” we began to discuss the connection between justice, judgment and love.  As a lawyer and legal scholar, the themes of justice and judgment have always been interesting to me.  I’ve always felt a bit of awe when I receive an order from a Judge, even regarding something mundane like the exchange of documents in a civil case.  That piece of paper represents the power and authority of the United... Read more

Tom Long, well-known American Presbyterian preacher and professor, decided more than a decade ago that it was time to do a state of the art book on the Christian funeral. “What I did not anticipate discovering,” he confesses, “that the reigning understanding of the ‘state of the art’ funeral, which I shared along with many of my colleagues in ministry, was theologically impoverished and that examining the history, theology and practice of Christian funerals would dramatically redefine what I consider... Read more

I met Ron Highfield in an airport after we had both attended a conference in Cincinnati. Ron is a theologian at Pepperdine, and I will get to speak at Pepperdine this week. But Ron has a good, a very good book, about God called Great Is the Lord: Theology for the Praise of God . I will be blogging through his book over the next month. Read more

A longish, I admit, clip from First Things: The principal source of my melancholy, however, is my firm conviction that today’s most obstreperous infidels lack the courage, moral intelligence, and thoughtfulness of their forefathers in faithlessness. What I find chiefly offensive about them is not that they are skeptics or atheists; rather, it is that they are not skeptics at all and have purchased their atheism cheaply, with the sort of boorish arrogance that might make a man believe himself... Read more

 In this series I’m asking Andy Stanley some questions about preaching but I’m cheating when I say that: I’m reading his book (Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication ) and generating my questions that he answers in his book. OK, you are you; Andy is Andy; John Ortberg is John Ortberg; Fleming Rutledge is Fleming Rutledge; Phyllis Tickle is Phyllis Tickle; Jon Tyson is Jon Tyson; I could go on but you get my point. Each of these... Read more