Pastor Roger, speaking from a “free” church baptistic context (no infant baptism) and concerned about a failure to understand what one is getting into, wonders aloud if churches are baptizing by profession too many too young: What is your wisdom on this one? I was seven years old. I was baptized by immersion on Mothers’ Day, 1957. Two weeks later I sensed that God was telling me that He wanted me to be a pastor. Six years later I preached... Read more
MINISTRY ISN’T FAIR, by Tim Spivey Dr. Tim Spivey is Lead Pastor of New Vintage Church in Escondido, California and author of the widely read leadership blog. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University. I admit it. Ministry isn’t fair. More people in ministry quit from discouragement than any other reason. At least, that’s been the case among my peers. It’s the only reason I’ve ever had one of those dark night thoughts of, “Why am I doing... Read more
If the Christian life is defined as being spiritually formed, without suggesting for a moment this is all about spirit and not at all about body, what would it look like to be spiritual formed? Diane Chandler, at Regent University in Virginia Beach, offers this definition in her new book, Christian Spiritual Formation: An Integrated Approach for Personal and Relational Wholeness: Therefore, CSF is defined as an interactive process by which God the Father fashions believers into the image of... Read more
Today’s post offers ten reasons for going to seminary, and I know full well that many today both find seminary irrelevant and contend they are “successful” ministers without seminary. I’ve heard not a few of said contenders say that they think seminary would have hurt them. I disagree mostly… and, yes, the MDiv or a seminary degree is the union card or accreditation level for many churches … so here then are ten reasons to attend seminary: 1. Gift enhancement.... Read more
In a letter from Franz Ernst Pfisterer to his former seminary professor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pfisterer reflects on DB’s critical observations about a sermon Pfisterer sent to him for critique. Evidently Bonhoeffer pushed against something in the sermon that made Jesus the means. I have been arguing for sometime that the soterian gospel, the gospel that centralizes salvation, makes Jesus the means of salvation and de-centralizes Jesus away from being the point and telos of the story. The focus on the... Read more
What role should tradition play when it comes to theology and biblical interpretation? This is a significant question, and one that comes up quite often in discussions of the relationship between science (or other areas of study) and Christian faith. It isn’t a new question of course, but one that has played a role in Christian thinking for centuries. Is a new perspective wrong (whether on Paul or Genesis or something else) simply because it requires a change in thinking... Read more
By Sean Palmer Singing As Spiritual Discipline How important is singing to your own spirituality? How important is singing to your church’s worship time? [I’m using “worship” here as it is often used.] There’s nothing the church does so wonderfully and terribly as singing. Some folks even make their ecclesial decisions based on whether or not they “connect to God” through singing. If you’ve spent more than 10-minutes inside an American worship service, you already know how important singing is.... Read more
Agitation for control, that’s what happens during election seasons (which last way too long in the USA), and the culture wars implicates many Christians in that agitation for control. There is within our faith an aching for God’s will be to done but when that ache becomes activism in the political sector it often falls prey to the “Constantinian Temptation.” Our Lord’s vision of the kingdom surpasses partisan politics. It relocates politics. It calls us to a different kind of... Read more
Spiritual Formation and the Jesus Creed An Online Dialogue between Dr. Scot McKnight (New Testament Professor @nseminary and author of The Jesus Creed) and Dr. Brad Strait (Senior Pastor at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church) Brad: This past Sunday, our church in Denver began what we are calling “Read the Creed.” This is a seven week, all church study of your book, The Jesus Creed. Our whole church is reading your book in hopes of being spiritually formed over the next seven weeks. Like a... Read more
The more we expect from our local church or the church universal the less we will discover in the church. But, when we expect less than our dreamy ideals the more church we will discover. Idealism wrecks reality and the church is not an ideal but a reality. Kingdom-now is not an ideal but a reality, and it is filled with broken promises by people who are themselves broken. Brokenness is part of what it means to indwell the church/kingdom... Read more
Jesus Creed
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