Jesus’ Way with Words Jesus did not shy away from giving people mind cramps.  Jesus was not afraid of being misunderstood.  While living in our reality, he spoke from a different realm altogether.  Immersed in that realm, he brought deepened meanings to ordinary words.  One of the most important dimensions of pastoral ministry is helping others recover the immensity of eternity in ordinary, daily life. Jesus was a masterful word artist.  As a brilliant conversationalist, Jesus could inject an ordinary... Read more

Jackson Wu teaches theology and missiology for Chinese pastors. He blogs at www. jacksonwu.org. Wu has also written Saving God’s Face: A Chinese Contextualization of Salvation through Honor and Shame (2013). Follow him on Twitter by clicking here. A “Social Gospel” Worth Preaching In Christian Political Witness, how might McKnight and Gombis’ chapters practically shape the church’s ministry? (For a summary of their chapters, see my previous post.) 1. A “Social Gospel”? These two chapters should alert people that the gospel does indeed have... Read more

Source: Two tenured Bryan College professors that were notified their employment will be terminated on May 17 after they failed to acknowledge the college’s recent “clarification” on the origins of man in their contract renewal are suing the college in Rhea County Chancery Court. The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday, states that when the Bryan College Board of Trustees approved a “clarification” to the school’s statement of faith saying that man descended from Adam and Eve and did not... Read more

“Next time I’m in church, please no photos.” –Kanye West A couple of months ago, right after Donald Miller had written a blog admitting he wasn’t a regular church attender, I wrote a blog here disagreeing with him. Now it has started to dawn on me that I was wrong. Not about church, but about Donald Miller going to church, and specifically not understanding first the way he experienced church.  I have been getting paid to go to church for so... Read more

Jackson Wu teaches theology and missiology for Chinese pastors. He blogs at www. jacksonwu.org. Wu has also written Saving God’s Face: A Chinese Contextualization of Salvation through Honor and Shame (2013). Follow him on Twitter by clicking here. [SMcK: I mistakenly got two posts out of order. “Is the Gospel Political?” will be followed Friday by the post about the social gospel. My apologies to Jackson Wu and to you, our readers.] Is the Gospel “Political”? In Christian Political Witness, Scot McKnight and Tim... Read more

From Shane Claiborne: Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler wrote a piece this week defending the death penalty. In his 1200 word argument for why Christians should support the death penalty, he does not mention Jesus a single time. Digging deeper, as you read the official pro-death penalty statement of the Southern Baptists, there is not a single reference to Jesus or the Gospels. There are plenty of other problems with the scriptural maneuvering used to justify the contemporary practice of the death penalty... Read more

Source: Despite the fact that Pope Francis received many accolades for taking a position against traditional authoritarianism and for criticizing the church for obsessing over birth control and homosexuality at the expense of more important issues, such as economic justice, Francis is now pushing back on the nuns who do just that. I’m talking about the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group that represents 80 percent of American nuns and is focused on social justice. In the past, the Vatican has gone... Read more