These are some very cool summer drinks. I’m glad Jack and Priscilla were at SPU in the aftermath of the shooting: Is it callous to say I found consolation in desolation on that grassy quad with students I admire and cherish? These students were so reflective, comfortable in the silence, mature in their prayers for the shooter, the victims, our community. I didn’t mean to or want to, but I felt hopeful. In four short years, just 120 weeks, these... Read more
Our Friday Shepherd’s Nook post by John Frye. Salt, Light and Bible Reading I like it when Scot McKnight makes a bold claim like, “Our passage is the most significant passage in the entire Bible on how to read the Bible…” (66). Most significant. Entire Bible. We are reviewing chapters three and four of Scot’s SGBC: The Sermon on the Mount. Chapter three addresses the salt and light metaphors Jesus used about his followers (Matt. 5:13-16) and chapter four engages... Read more
The foreword to Brian Zahnd’s new book, A Farewell to Mars, says this: Though some may contest the point, and I’ve heard them for years, there is something profoundly unsettling to watch those who follow Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace, use weapons of warfare to kill others and think they are somehow following Jesus. At the simplest level of evangelicalism, and by that I mean anyone who affirms salvation in Christ alone, it impossible for me to comprehend how... Read more
Jane Giordano Drake’s review of Thomas Rzeznik’s Church and Estate: Numerous, huge, substantial, ornate churches built in the early twentieth century occupied street corner after street corner in my town of Urbana, Illinois (like the one from my former neighborhood, pictured here). I wanted to know how these churches got there and how they were still around, but nobody seemed to find that an interesting topic of conversation (inside or outside of the graduate classroom). I lacked a lot of... Read more
Many years ago I was with my then three-year-old daughter at a playground. We were hanging out and playing on the equipment (a far more elaborate set-up than the one shown to the right). Another parent showed up with two three-year-olds, one of them well known to my daughter. She happily went off to play with them (as far more interesting than a parent). After many attempts, where the other two were playing a game that involved intentionally ignoring, excluding,... Read more
In his new book, Surprised by Scripture, N.T. Wright sketches his case for the ordination of women. What is for some of us an already established set of observations on the basis of the Bible is for others not only contested by problematic. In fact, for some affirming the ordination of women is a way of denying the Bible (and tradition) while for others denying women is denying the Bible (but not much of the tradition). His study is not extensive... Read more
Source: OK, barefoot runners, your moment as The Next Big Thing in running shoes is officially over. You had a great run (see what I did there?) but the pendulum has swung back, as it inevitably does, and “barely there” is giving way to “maximal cushioning” as the next intriguing idea in helping us all get some exercise without destroying our legs. The shoes look like modern, colorful versions of your grandmother’s orthopedic footwear, and some have called them clown shoes. But... Read more
This post, by my friend Jim Martin, Vice President at Harding School of Theology, puts into print a dimension of Jim’s ministry at Crestview Church of Christ in Waco for which he was well-known. You Can Be Used To Mentor “Mentoring is a relational experience through which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources” (J. Robert Clinton). Mentoring is a “relational experience.” Spiritual mentoring is not about downloading information into another person. Nor is it getting something off your chest. ... Read more
Today’s (re)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
Michael Paulson: Maybe this kind of legal decision and policy formation will lead more and more students to local churches where Bible studies and small groups can flourish without interference. BRUNSWICK, Me. — For 40 years, evangelicals at Bowdoin College have gathered periodically to study the Bible together, to pray and to worship. They are a tiny minority on the liberal arts college campus, but they have been a part of the school’s community, gathering in the chapel, the dining... Read more
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