What do you say to your adult daughter if she tells you she’s not convinced of God or that she’s at least not on good terms with God? Pastor-theologian Michael Jinkins, in his new book Called to Be Human: Letters to My Children on Living a Christian Life ,writes simple theological letters to his daughter (Jessica) and son (Jeremy) about their particular issues: Jessica faces doubts about God and the gospel and the church and Jeremy faces discernment issues about... Read more
Sunday evening in our last session Dr. Dennis Perry, the lead pastor at Aldersgate UMC in Alexandria VA, asked me a question that went like this: what are your impressions and what would be your advice to Aldersgate? My response was immediate because Kris and I were struck by this at Aldersgate: the church was perhaps the most intergenerational or multi-generational church we’ve ever been in. There were infants and little kids and junior and senior highers and young adults... Read more
Instead of presuming on the future James advocates a providential approach to our future. Here are his words: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the... Read more
This post, by Chris Folmsbee about Youth Ministry and the Challenging Economy, is suggestive and we’d love to generate a conversation about his suggestions and questions. Chris sent me this post last week and, because of our travel to the DC area, I couldn’t get it posted… so here it is … there are some big questions here… Last week I took a call from a youth pastor in the greater Portland area who, for lack of a better word,... Read more
This is Mary Veeneman’s second post about Harper and Metzger’s new book: Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction . This sketch by Mary of the book asks one of the most profound questions that must be asked in the discussion about women in ministry, about women like Fleming Rutledge at the right. I did not grow up in evangelicalism and while I was somewhat exposed to the evangelical debates about gender while in high school, I was not fully aware... Read more
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I was invited by the good folks at Aldersgate United Methodist in Alexandria, VA, to be the Scholar in Residence last weekend — and it was everything we hoped for and more. Though I joked with them about preaching a sermon four times, what really came home to me again was my tribute to the pastors who preach multiple times each weekend. So, to Dennis Perry and Jason Micheli — my hat’s off to your labors in preaching. (And Wesley... Read more
James assaults the hybris of the traveling merchants for their presumption, and his response to them is to consider the brevity of life (James 4:13-17). Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you... Read more
The first section of Alister McGrath’s new book A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology deals with his vision of a Trinitarian natural theology. As is typical in almost anything by McGrath the section rambles and repeats and makes a number of excellent points in the process. As McGrath develops his vision for natural theology he notes several criticisms leveled against the notion of a natural theology. These criticisms are focused on the use of natural... Read more
The first section of Alister McGrath’s new book A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology deals with his vision of a Trinitarian natural theology. As is typical in almost anything by McGrath the section rambles and repeats and makes a number of excellent points in the process. As McGrath develops his vision for natural theology he notes several criticisms leveled against the notion of a natural theology. These criticisms are focused on the use of natural... Read more
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