Kris and I will be in Seattle Nov 4-6 for the launch of Embracing Grace. We’ll get in late Thurs night and be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, at about noon, we’ll be at Mercer Island Covenant for the launch (and luncheon), and on Sunday I’ll be preaching at Mercer Island Covenant. There is a big Emergent event in Seattle (Off the Map with Generous Orthodoxy) that weekend, too, so I’m hoping to bump into some of those... Read more
This is as good a spot as any to say something about Tom Wright’s view of the gospel, and I’ll take this from his fine small book, What Saint Paul Really Said. First, Tom trots out how “gospel” is understood in modern contexts. “… a description of how people get saved; of the theological mechanism whereby, in some people’s language, Christ takes our sin and we his righteousness; in other people’s language, Jesus becomes my personal saviour; in other languages... Read more
This is a series of blogs, over a couple of weeks, about James Houston, The Mentored Life. It is being written by both of us, Scot McKnight (at North Park University) and Brad Bergfalk (pastor of Zion Covenant in Jamestown, NY). Houston’s book has received some rave reviews and it can be of use to both pastors and especially to the emerging movement folk who want to see the gospel put on a more personal plane. To begin with, here... Read more
Ask your average Christian, all across the map — and I mean from the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic to the Protestant low-church evangelical, what is the gospel and you will get one of three sorts of answers? First, some will say that the gospel is the redemption of God through Christ that is mediated through and in the Church and its priests. Now, to be sure, few will say it quite like that, but if you push and... Read more
From Carl Sandburg: Henry C. Deming, Congressman from Connecticut, reported that when Lincoln was asked why, with his obvious interest in religious matters and his familiarity with the Bible, he did not join a church, Lincoln replied: When any church will inscribe over its altars, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior’s condensed statement for the substance of both law and gospel, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and... Read more
Here is a (slightly edited) letter from a former student. This is why I like teaching. What’s up Mr. McKnight, how have you been? how’s life? I see you got another book out, I’ll probably read it. Anyways life after college is great, I mean you can’t imagine how much fun I’m having. Everyday I wake up, go to work, walk around this huge building (still a security guard) talking to people (most are my friends now). Then I go... Read more
One would think a question like that would be easy to answer. What is the gospel itself? How do tracts present the gospel? How do churches present the gospel? How do you understand the gospel? Over the next week or two I’ll be examining this question. It would be good for each of us to sit down and simply write out our definition of the gospel (the gospel is…..). Today’s blog will look at the solution that can be found... Read more
Just in case you missed it, that baseball game between the Braves and the Astros was a National League beauty, the likes of which the American League would never know. And that, my friends, is the argument for why the NL plays baseball and the AL “hit”ball. Did you ever see Roger Clemens bunt or bat in the AL? And all that juggling of line-ups? Not in the AL, pardner, never. Read more
I didn’t get to this yesterday, and Marko has already given me a heads-up on my behavior, so here it is: |inline Read more
I will begin tomorrow a series of blogs with Brad Bergfalk on James Houston, The Mentored Life: From Individualism to Personhood. We’ll post something a few times each week until we are done. In addition, I’ll begin blogging now on Embracing Grace, as it is due to be out in about a week — in bookstores in about 10-15 days. This series will be asking this question: “What is the gospel?” So, I’ll interchange these two series. Read more
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