What is your favorite performance of the 1st week of the Olympics? Simone Biles: Biles was not just the best gymnast in Rio Olympic Arena. She is, by most reasonable measurements, the best ever. She is so good that any comparison must come from other disciplines—not the vault or the floor or the beam, but basketball, swimming or track. She is Michael Jordan or Babe Ruth, so far ahead of her generation’s rivals that it will probably take years for... Read more

Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or, more correctly, Judaism(s). In this post-Christian era, we have frantic groups longing to return to the Promised Land. Each group, just as in Jesus’ day, thinks they know how to get America back again. Consider the Pharigelicals for whom law is King, especially at the Supreme Court level. Then there’s the Sadducelicals who... Read more

The question is this: When you are kingdom mission church? What would you add? Or what do you think is the single most important sign of a kingdom mission church? (An outline approach to rethinking kingdom mission, or You are a kingdom mission church when…) When the cruciform character of King Jesus shapes every major dimension of your local church. When your church perceives itself as a people redeemed and rescued from the world and evil by king Jesus. When... Read more

Aimee Byrd’s recent post on Denny Burk‘s recent statement is worth a reading of the whole post, but this clip gets to one of the main points of contention: Burk concludes that there is no need for CBMW to get involved in this Trinity stuff anymore and paints a picture as if CBMW’s teaching has nothing to do with all this controversy: I am a Danvers complementarian. That view of gender is not and never has been reliant upon an... Read more

Jonathan Merritt: “Character counts.” That was evangelicals’ rallying cry in their all-out assault against Bill Clinton beginning in 1993. In response to what they perceived as widespread moral decline, some religious groups had become aligned with the Republican Party during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. To them, the allegedly draft-dodging, pot-smoking, honesty-challenged womanizer symbolized everything that was wrong with America. More than two decades after Clinton’s first inauguration, many evangelical leaders of that era have endorsed the... Read more

Today I want to rethink what we mean by the term “kingdom.”  I see two predominant uses though some might prefer that I saw three; these two are reductions and my terms attempt to get to the essential theme: Social justice: “when good people do good things in the public sector for the common good.” If this is the meaning, then this is the question: “Who needs the church?” Redemptive moments: “when God breaks through redemptively in one of three... Read more

Sean Palmer at Missio Alliance: Three Confessions Ms. Clark Said, but Didn’t Say Without examination, many people – of all races – believe in preferable whiteness. It may have been the demythologizing of Caucasian greatness that stunned Gaye Clark when her daughter brought home someone she didn’t associate with greatness. For my part, I’m grateful she shared her experience. Her anxieties and learnings are almost universal. If you’re shocked that it took this experience for her to come to these new... Read more

The author of this blog post is a missionary in North Africa with Pioneer Bible Translators. She, along with her husband and two little girls, lives on the outskirts of a refugee camp working to facilitate disciple-making, Bible translation and mother tongue literacy among two least-reached Muslim groups. Her favorite things about North Africa include drinking scalding hot mint tea, wearing colorful tobes, watching her daughters play on ant hills, and hearing people’s stories. Her least favorite things include rats... Read more

The most common question I get about about The King Jesus Gospel book is this one: How do we evangelize now? A friend the other day says to me, “I was talking to a young pastor who likes your book but asked me, ‘What do I say to someone if I have 3-5 minutes?'” [Blech, I thought, that 3-5 minute thing is a problem that only soterians care about.] Later that day a former student says to me, “If you had... Read more