This letter is from a reader and concerns preaching a series. What do you think? What’s your advice? My question is in regards to preaching series vs. church calendar vs. preaching through whole books. We come from [the kind of preaching] background [where] the most well-known of those churches often preach through catchy, well-crafted series. I’m not inclined to preach in that way, but if we do that, I definitely make each sermon come from one text (as opposed to... Read more
John Walton, this time with Brent Sandy, has done it again. We have a new book that examines how to read the Bible within the categories of thought and practice of the Bible, a procedure that puts back on the shelf approaches that pretend the Bible is using our categories. The book is called The Lost World of Scripture, with John writing the OT parts and Brent the NT parts. The Bible, they confess, is a “literary masterpiece, a magnum opus, a... Read more
Affirming or confessing the virginal conception of Jesus is part of the Creed, so the virginal conception figures as a line in Christian orthodoxy. But how important is it? Can one deny it and be a Christian? (One can’t deny it and be fully orthodox, if one defines orthodoxy by the Creed.) Mike Bird, in Evangelical Theology, sketches the doctrine of the birth of Jesus and the virginal conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. 1. It is explicit in... Read more
From The American Scholar: A bit of a finger-pointing at evangelicalism’s lack of ability to adjust to changing demographics. Jim Hinch looks at Orange County’s Crystal Cathedral of Robert Schuller and it’s dissolution, at Dave Gibbons’ adjustment to changing demographics, at the demise of evangelical megachurches, and then one gets a bit of a “Where’s Rob Bell now?” scenario. In a few years, perhaps a decade or two, religious America will catch up to Orange County’s present. There will be... Read more
Today is Pearl Harbor Day, and if you’ve been to Pearl Harbor you know the story. Here are some elderly vets commemorating: Read more
From Thom Rainer: So much has changed in pastoring in just thirty years. Let’s look at major ways the pastorate has changed in that time. Thirty years ago, most people in the community held the pastor in high esteem. Thirty years ago, most people in the congregation held the pastor in high esteem. Leadership skills are required more today than thirty years ago. Interpersonal skills are required more today than thirty years ago. Outreach was accomplished by getting... Read more
John Blake’s article on C.S. Lewis, the man you never knew, is simply not news for anyone who has ever cared to know. Furthermore, the essay lacks perspective in the direction and change in Lewis’ own life. Tell a man’s story true, but tell it fair. (CNN) – He looked like a “red-faced pork butcher in shabby tweeds,” lived secretly with a woman for years and was so turned on by S&M that he once asked people at a party whether... Read more
From The Economist All About Adam commenting on the ETS session at Baltimore (HT R): A trickier controversy has been triggered by findings from the genome that modern humans, in their genetic diversity, cannot be descended from a single pair of individuals. Rather, there were at least several thousand “first humans”. That challenges the historical existence of Adam and Eve, and has sparked a crisis of conscience among evangelical Christians persuaded by genetic science. This is not an esoteric point,... Read more
From Reclaiming the Mind: The center of all theology, of the entirety of the Christian faith, is Christ himself. The Christ-event—in particular his death and resurrection—is the center of time: everything before it leads up to it; everything after it is shaped by it. If Christ were not God in the flesh, he would not have been raised from the dead. And if he were not raised from the dead, none of us would have any hope. My theology grows... Read more
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” Who can forget the misery of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations after her lover walked out on their wedding day? She stopped the clocks in her house at the exact time she was jilted and she began a mission of misery. She had great expectations that were horribly crushed. Jesus was born into a culture of great expectations. We read of the expectant hope in Zechariah, Mary, Simeon and Anna. Could the One who born of... Read more
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