Marriage and Divorce 5

Last updated on: January 21, 2010 at 12:09 am By Scot McKnight

What about the all-important words of Jesus on divorce and remarriage? [I can’t say I agree with Luck in all that he says here.] William F. Luck’s Divorce and Re-Marriage: Recovering the Biblical View discusses Jesus’ teachings in two chps, and I’ll give the big conclusions below. 1. Jesus, Luck argues, affirms the OT teaching that covenant breaking is treachery and treachery in the heart is adultery. Thus, the proper grounds for divorce are covenant breaking and the contemporary conditions... Read more

Chicken or Egg?

Last updated on: January 20, 2010 at 3:46 pm By Scot McKnight

Here’s a clip from the NYTimes on what comes first — liberalism or professor: The overwhelmingly liberal tilt of university professors has been explained by everything from outright bias to higher I.Q. scores. Now new research suggests that critics may have been asking the wrong question. Instead of looking at why most professors are liberal, they should ask why so many liberals — and so few conservatives — want to be professors. Read more

How to Help Haiti 3: David Brooks

Last updated on: January 20, 2010 at 2:37 pm By Scot McKnight

We are reposting David Brooks’ piece from the NYTimes on Haiti. His third point, and one that will surely draw an instinctual reaction from many of us, is that Haiti has a cultural issue at work in its poverty. What do you think of this point? Third, it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? Well, it has a history of oppression, slavery and... Read more

Acts and Mission 79

Last updated on: January 20, 2010 at 12:14 pm By Scot McKnight

The sort of miracles done by Paul in Ephesus drew much attention, in fact, too much attention. You can read the report below… 19:11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, 19:12 so that when even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 19:13 But some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits,... Read more

Senator from Massachusetts: Scott Brown

Last updated on: January 20, 2010 at 6:12 am By Scot McKnight

Senator Scott Brown beat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts senatorial election yesterday. What struck me about this election are the following points and questions: 1. Sen Kennedy sat on that seat for 46 years. 2. The Presidential election had so much momentum: where did it all go? What happened? 3. Most pundits think the big issue was the healthcare reform in D.C. — you agree? 4. Many pundits also think this is a statement to the politics of D.C. —... Read more

When do you leave a church?

Last updated on: January 20, 2010 at 5:38 am By Scot McKnight

We occasionally post letters from readers and friends, and the letter below comes from a reader. The letter expresses a really good question and it also gets to the heart of the pain of many folks. So, how would you respond to the questions? Dear Scot, When is appropriate to leave a church? I have always thought that membership in a local congregation of a church is an important part of christian life. This relationship is a commitment to a... Read more

Souls in Transition 7

Last updated on: January 20, 2010 at 12:14 am By Scot McKnight

Smith and Snell, in chp 6 of their Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults map six major religious “types” in emerging adults, and this can be seen as a broad-brushed sketch of what emerging adults in American culture are like when it comes to religion: 1. Committed traditionalists (15%) 2. Selective adherents (30%) 3. Spiritually open (15%) 4. Religiously indifferent (25%) 5. Religiously disconnected (5%) 6. Irreligious (10%) Next chp sketches what they saw change or... Read more

How to Help Haiti 2: David Brooks

Last updated on: January 19, 2010 at 2:36 pm By Scot McKnight

We are reposting David Brooks’ essay on Haiti from the NYTimes. Here’s his second point: The second hard truth is that micro-aid is vital but insufficient. Given the failures of macrodevelopment, aid organizations often focus on microprojects. More than 10,000 organizations perform missions of this sort in Haiti. By some estimates, Haiti has more nongovernmental organizations per capita than any other place on earth. They are doing the Lord’s work, especially these days, but even a blizzard of these efforts... Read more

God’s Beloved Life

Last updated on: January 19, 2010 at 12:41 pm By Scot McKnight

Last weekend Efrem Smith, author of The Hip-Hop Church: Connecting With the Movement Shaping Our Culture and a pastor from … in Minneapolis MN, preached at Willow Creek and all I can say is “Wow.” He blessed us and challenged us and inspired us — fantastic sermon. He preached from 1 John 3 and, in effect, he deconstructed and then reconstructed some current ideas by making this argument: You can’t have God’s Beloved Community until you have God’s Beloved Church,... Read more

Acts and Mission 78

Last updated on: January 19, 2010 at 12:06 pm By Scot McKnight

Paul became a virtual local pastor in Ephesus. Notice these words: 19:8 So Paul entered the synagogue and spoke out fearlessly for three months, addressing and convincing them about the kingdom of God. 19:9 But when some were stubborn and refused to believe, reviling the Way before the congregation, he left them and took the disciples with him, addressing them every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 19:10 This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia,... Read more