Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP Read more

BIBLICAL CERTAINTY AND ITS EROSION Michael Lee is Grace F. Kea Associate Professor of American History at Eastern University.  His book, The Erosion of Biblical Certainty, framed this conversation. David George Moore posed the questions.  Dave blogs at www.twocities.org. Moore:  The dominant narrative many of us were taught is that European scholars in the nineteenth-century began to raise issues about the trustworthiness of the Bible.  Your contention is something else happened which was both earlier and done by Americans.  Describe... Read more

A  selection from John Frye’s book Jesus the Pastor: Leading Others in the Character and Power of Christ. “AVOID conflict” was my middle name. I thought I was a real peacemaker—what I really was, however, was a pain-avoider. I would often hear, “John, you don’t like confrontation, do you?” While I would smile politely on the outside and mumble something like “You’re right, that isn’t my personality,” on the inside I would knot up thinking, “No! A thousand times, no!... Read more

By John Frye. One of the most dramatic episodes in the life of Jesus was the stilling of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The recurring word is “mega.”A storm with mega wind, a mega calm (on the sea) and a mega fear (in the disciples). The Hebraism is telling: the disciples “were fearing a great fear.”This story is huge (mega) according to Mark (see Mark 4:35-41). This event is so potent that Christian art found in the 2nd... Read more

Evidently Justin Bieber — somewhere, I don’t know where — said going to church makes a person no more Christian than going to Taco Bell makes you a taco. (Not as rigorous as piece of logic as it could have been, but that’s for another day.) The Rev. Mark Woods (here) responds by listing five reasons for going to church. Here are his and I offer another way of looking at this question. 1. Church stops me from being selfish... Read more

Headlines scream … Ex-Christians, Young Adults Leaving the Faith, A Generation of Dropouts, Quitting Church, the Rise of the Nones. We are on the verge of a crisis with faith and the faithful in retreat. Could we be the last Christian generation? We must rally the troops, cut our losses, and tackle the problem. Jonathan P. Hill, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Calvin College recently published a short book Emerging Adulthood and Faith that explores the change (or absence of... Read more

A few months ago, I had just finished reading Rebecca DeYoung’s wonderful book Glittering Vices and at the same time I was listening to a sermon podcast of a preacher mentor of mine on the topic of freedom. After listening to a few sermons, I gave my friend a call and asked him if he was doing a series on the seven deadly sins, and he told me he wasn’t.  They had actually done a church-wide survey asking everyone where... Read more

By Nathaniel Grimes ((www.twitter.com/nathaniel_g) Editor’s Note: This piece is part of a conversation Patheos is hosting around the new film The Armor of Light. Find more perspectives here. “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” –        Luke 19:42 “If you see the world as very narrow, and there is a certain narrow category of good people whose lives should be preserved, and then there... Read more