Gary Black, Jr., professor at Azusa Pacific University and author of a recent book about Dallas Willard as well as the co-author with Dallas of a new book (The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth) that expands Divine Conspiracy, offers this post to the Jesus Creed blog readers, and he is responding in part to a comment I made on the blog with six points, the sixth point, which Gary Black mentions, concerns the precariousness of the pastoral... Read more
A little while back I traveled to Cincinnati to speak at the Cincinnati Vineyard to a regional group of Vineyard pastors and leaders. I have always enjoyed the Vineyard leaders, in part because I had friends in the Vineyard when it was launched and because I’ve watched so many in the Vineyard grow — theologically and ecclesially. I am grateful to Dave Workman, former senior pastor at Cincy’s Vineyard, and to Jason Smith for hosting me. Great to be with... Read more
By Margaret Feinberg, who had Maya Angelou as a professor: I wish I could to tell you that the first class I sat in on with Maya Angelou was filled with an unforgettable poetry reading and rich stories about her textured life, but for the next hour, each of the students circled the room introducing themselves, stating and spelling their names. In this class, I was no longer Margaret, I was Ms. Feinberg, and everyone else would recognize me as such.... Read more
When a MacDonald’s and its patented fast-food approach sought to open up in a new neighborhood in Paris, some locals formed the Slow Food Movement, and this caught on … so we soon had Slow Cities and Slow Money and Slow Gardening and Slow Parenting and Slow Reading and Slow Design and Slow Art and a World Slow Day. So C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison have now designed Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus. To read... Read more
The dustup over the last couple weeks between TGC, focused there on Kevin DeYoung’s post, and Tullian Tchividjian now has an even more radical wrinkle. First, some context: the essential difference is that both TGC and Tullian believe in transformation of the individual believer but TGC folks, with their more Puritan approach, believe in highlight sanctification as a summons by God in the present world and which needs emphasis while Tullian’s more Lutheranesque approach is to preach and teach grace... Read more
Eric Geiger: I know that the decision makers for giving pastors a sabbatical vary according to context. The ones responsible with the decision may be executive staff, elder team, deacon body, or personnel team. If you are on one of those teams, I encourage you to give your pastors a sabbatical for two reasons: (1) for the sake of the pastors and (2) for the sake of the church. 1. Budget to have others fill the pulpit. 2. Assign point... Read more
They ran out of words! This time, they out-spelled the spelling bee. For the first time since 1962, two students were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee after they exhausted the official word list before either could prevail. At the end of a grueling 21-round final, the golden trophy was hoisted by 14-year-old Sriram Hathwar, competing in his fifth national bee, and 13-year-old Ansun Sujoe, making his second trip to the nation’s biggest spell-off. “The competition was against... Read more
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. Read more
Fantastic idea by Boz Tchividjian: GRACE recently convened a team of Christian theologians, pastors, counselors, educators, and child protection professionals who have each demonstrated a commitment to protecting children and serving survivors. This historic committee has embraced the task of developing the first substantive seminary curriculum designed to educate and train Christian leaders on effective prevention and ministry responses to child sexual abuse. Our objective is to develop this curriculum in such a way that it can be easily adapted... Read more
The Sermon: What Kind of Ethics? Scot McKnight names a few scholars in his Acknowledgements and thanks them “for some pushback on the introduction” to his SGBC on the Sermon on the Mount (xi). This caught my eye and made me want to pay more attention to the introduction. Many of us are so eager to get into “the meat” of a new commentary that we skip the introduction. Don’t do that with this book. Scot’s introduction urges us not... Read more
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