We will soon begin Saturday Afternoon Book Reviews, a new section at the Jesus Creed blog where we will have 3000 word reviews (1500 word summary; 1500 word interaction). Most of these will be written by you or by solicited reviewers. So, today I put forth this request: Which books would you like to see reviewed?  We can get a free copy of the book and send it on to the reviewer, but the question we have today is “Which... Read more

I’d like to announce a conference in London for all our European readers — and for those who have the funds to fly off to London for what looks like a fantastic conference. It’s called Christian Fundamentalism and British Evangelicalism: Exploring the Relationship. Here’s a brief clip from the website: The Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism in Britain Project is hosting a one-day conference for scholars, ministers and the interested public at King’s College Chapel, London, on Tuesday,15 December 2009. The conference will consider... Read more

Rob Bell, in an interview with Burnside Writers, suggests sermons could get better if they got shorter… Any response? BWC: You’ve already explored the “high content, low word count” concept with your book Drops Like Stars, and it’s clearly a big concern to you at the moment. What inspired this “endless evolution” you’re referring to? Bell: The first century rabbis were not praised for going on and on and on and on. Great rhetoric has never been about how many words... Read more

In this series on a Third Way approach to preaching and the teaching ministry of the local church, I have suggested that we need to de-focus from the sermon being the be-all and end-all of education, and I have also argued that we need to develop an outcome based model. That is, all teaching in a church can be subsumed under some overall general “outcomes,” and outcomes are measurable behaviors, attitudes and habits.  One of the issues that arises in... Read more

I apologize that the comments were turned off on this post this morning … not sure how that happened, but it did. On the plane yesterday the man sitting with us told us he was “raised Jewish” but that he went to a college where he had to take some Christianity, so he’s got some Christianity in him, and then he said it’s all rolled up into an overriding Zen Buddhism. There you have it: New Agers make up their... Read more

Nightline’s series on the Ten Commandments moves to the 8th Commandment: “Thou shalt not steal.” The commandment, or more properly prohibition, is general enough in Exodus 20:15 to include both kidnapping and swiping what belongs to others. According to the experts, the 8th Commandment included the notion of stealth.  Clearly, there is a sense of the integrity and security of personal property in the 8th Commandment. But property is not enough: property involves the person. Not to steal is not... Read more