Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,... Read more
From Katelyn Beaty: Many Americans seem eager this week to see the phrase “thoughts and prayers” die a good platitude’s death. After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history took the lives of 59 Las Vegas concertgoers Sunday night, a sentiment meant to express solidarity sounded to some like cold comfort. When tweeted by elected officials who could feasibly pass tighter gun-control laws, the phrase struck people as not only irritating, but also potentially dangerous: What if uttering this hollow but... Read more
From Stan Friedman, discussing how this is understood in the Covenant Church, but what he says applies across the spectrum. What do you think? Should a pastor who retires or leaves congregational ministry continue attending the church they served? The Board of Ordered Ministry’s “Ethical Principles” document states: “We are respectful toward our successors and sensitive to their pastoral ministry with our former ministry setting, either by correspondence or by direct conversation. We leave a ministry setting with courteous finality... Read more
Aigner’s on a roll when it comes to Mark Driscoll’s now being on Patheos Evangelical (which I think is ridiculous): Forgiveness is one thing. Stupidity is quite another. Driscoll is not just a guy who made a mistake or two. He is an unrepentant, abusive, self-aggrandizing bully who has only voiced weak, vague, gaslighting strains of apology when his back was truly against the wall. He deserves no more chances to prove himself. Giving him yet another is a slap... Read more
https://soundcloud.com/user-212639123/the-parable-of-the-sheep-and-the-goats-kr-65 Read more
Melanie McDonagh: Is it possible that London commuters are now unable to tell the difference between the cry of God is Great, Allahu Akbar – a sentiment that unfortunately accompanies every IS atrocity – and the actual Bible? It seems like it from the reaction on the Shepperton to Waterloo service at 8.30am yesterday. As one report put it, ‘a man with a rucksack began reciting what seemed to be passages from the Old Testament. He apparently declared homosexuality and... Read more
“An Act of Pure Evil,” by John Frye “Evil is not explained but surrounded.” —Eugene H. Peterson Our TVs, iPhones, laptops, radios, and social media stagger under the horror of the evil violently inflicted on innocent concert goers in Las Vegas last Sunday evening. The numbers of dead and wounded by a mass killing are historic. News at this writing still reports that investigators have not discovered the motive that prompted Stephen Paddock to commit this horrendous homeland massacre. Predictably,... Read more
My friend and fellow student of James D.G. Dunn, Graham Twelftree is well known for his robust examination of the miracle stories of Jesus: exorcisms, miracles, etc. Now he has put his hand to editing a book, The Nature Miracles of Jesus: Problems, Perspectives, and Prospects, in which a variety of scholars across the spectrum examine the nature miracles and respond to one another. Graham opens with an admirable but succinct study of how the nature miracles have been understood in... Read more
This is the term when my DMin students turn in their DMin thesis proposals. All I can say is, “Wow!” First, the projects are rooted in Bible and its historical contexts: some are anchoring their work in Jewish sources, others more in Old Testament narrative, and others in the broader context of the apostle Paul. Second, the projects are creative: how better to read the Old Testament, how narrative can be reshape local church theology, how the Jewish wisdom tradition... Read more
From 538: Last year, we produced a series of stories on American gun deaths and the people behind the statistics. From that reporting, and other sources, we know mass shootings are different from other kinds of gun deaths in several ways. First, they’re rare, and the people doing the shooting are different. The majority of gun deaths in America aren’t even homicides, let alone caused by mass shootings. Two-thirds of the more than 33,000 gun deaths that take place in the... Read more
Jesus Creed
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In