For a long time in my teaching career I have worked with these two terms (salvation vs. discipleship), especially when it came to the teachings of Jesus on ethics. It permits good discussion about both the gospel and “the bottom line.” I’ve given up these two terms as a template through which I process the NT message of the gospel and redemption, for a variety of reasons. Here’s a question that really gets it going: “What do you have when... Read more
I’ll be daily blogging (starting one week before Advent) about Advent to record some thoughts about Gospel texts and how they can be used to foster our readiness for Christmas. It would be fun to get some involved in this so we could all work on it together. Read more
I’ll be daily blogging (starting one week before Advent) about Advent to record some thoughts about Gospel texts and how they can be used to foster our readiness for Christmas. It would be fun to get some involved in this so we could all work on it together. Read more
Pastors have a nearly impossible task. Especially pastors of mega-churches. Because they are asked to do so many things, speak at so many other functions, and render judgment on nearly everything that comes along, pastors can develop one of two orientations: humility about the task or what I call “P-Bics”: Pastors of Big Churches Syndrome. |inline Read more
Pastors have a nearly impossible task. Especially pastors of mega-churches. Because they are asked to do so many things, speak at so many other functions, and render judgment on nearly everything that comes along, pastors can develop one of two orientations: humility about the task or what I call “P-Bics”: Pastors of Big Churches Syndrome. |inline Read more
Of all the crosses I see on churches, I like the Methodist cross the best: a cross, an empty cross, with the sign of the Spirit surrounding it. Can it get more complete? You computer folk could do better than I, but here is a link to one. Read more
Of all the crosses I see on churches, I like the Methodist cross the best: a cross, an empty cross, with the sign of the Spirit surrounding it. Can it get more complete? You computer folk could do better than I, but here is a link to one. Read more
I promise not to blog (much) about the gospel in the immediate future, but it is a topic so central to what we do (and believe) that it deserved some attention. On top of its importance, I’m trying to give Embracing Grace a bit of a context. The gospel is easy to distort and I see distortions in these ways: |inline Read more
I promise not to blog (much) about the gospel in the immediate future, but it is a topic so central to what we do (and believe) that it deserved some attention. On top of its importance, I’m trying to give Embracing Grace a bit of a context. The gospel is easy to distort and I see distortions in these ways: |inline Read more
Summary (Brad Bergfalk) Houston moves from describing the “Heroic Mentor” and the “Stoic Mentor” to what he calls the “Secular Psychotherapeutic Mentor.” Houston asserts that the “therapeutic mentor” is the most pervasive of the three in American culture. The “therapeutic mentor” finds its embodiment in the psychoanalytic revolution of Sigmund Freud and later Carl Jung. Whereas previous civilizations were grounded in some kind of religious foundation, the post-psychoanalytic revolution is wholly secular. According to Houston, the psychoanalytic theory succeeded in... Read more
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