By Tommy Preson Phillips, pastor at Watermark Church in Tampa FL and Northern Seminary Student Every so often I receive an email written out of anger, hurt, or any one of the various emotions that cause people to lash out at others. Sometimes these emails are specifically written to inflict pain and shut down communication, while other times they are written to elicit a specific response from me.  I’ve only ever been a pastor, so I’m not sure what other... Read more

I’d long heard the salvation narrative presented in the Bible framed something like this: “…and then there was 400 years of silence from God between the conclusion of the Old Testament prophet Malachi’s ministry until the birth of Jesus.” Read more

Today we relight the first two candles of the Advent wreath. The candle of HOPE and the candle of PEACE. Now we light the third candle of Advent. This is the candle of JOY. As the coming of Jesus, our Savior, draws nearer, our joy builds with our anticipation of his birth. From the Book of Isaiah we read the words of our Lord: “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to... Read more

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. BCP Read more

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF A FOUNDING FATHER Thomas Kidd is distinguished professor of history and associate director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor. He is the author of several books on early American history. In 2015, he was interviewed on his book about George Whitefield. The following interview revolves around Professor Kidd’s latest book, Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father. David Moore conducted the following interview. You can find Dave’s work at... Read more

Blessings on your Advent Season! Adam Laats on conservative reaction to elite universities: As I argue in my book about educational conservatism, if we hope to make any sense of today’s conservative anger at elite higher ed, we can’t start with the 1970s. We need to begin in the 1920s, when conservative intellectuals had their first experience of exile, when the tropes exploited so powerfully by Kristol and Bloom were first developed. It was not in the 1970s, but in the... Read more

Mitch Randall Over the last few months, we have witnessed one story after another where powerful men exert their authority and influence to engage in sexually abusive behaviors toward women. While these situations are not exclusive to Christians, an argument can be made that the church has a theological culpability in these matters. When the church teaches young girls to be subservient, the church fosters the idea that women are less important than men. When the church argues for complementarianism... Read more

Irresistible, by Mike Glenn Every senior adult I know despises social media. They don’t like Twitter or Facebook. They refuse to use Instagram or learn how to Skype or FaceTime. They will point to teenagers and young adults who are lost in their phones and complain about what a waste of time it is to text your friends when you can just sit down and talk to them. They long for the old days when penmanship mattered, and nothing was... Read more

The problem is that America’s evangelicalism doesn’t know the difference between America and Jesus. Progressive evangelicals are no different. All they want to talk about is Trump. Read more

https://soundcloud.com/user-212639123/the-incarnation-taking-root-kr-74 Read more