You Had Me at “Mary” In joining the global church in celebrating the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, I probed into the unique encounter that Mary Magdalene had with her risen Lord. Pastors, always on the hunt to express in new ways the old, old Story, find themselves in this season pouring over the “resurrection” texts. It has been some time since I reflected on John 20:1-18. Commenting on John 20:16 when Jesus says “Mary” and Mary... Read more
God-likeness is Christ-likeness, and if Christ is the crucified one, then both God is cruciform and the Christian is designed to become cruciform. The call to holiness and to love is the call to be conformed to Christ and to God, and if God reveals himself in Christ’s love in the cross and resurrection, then God-liness and Christ-likeness are both cruciformity. This is is the important thesis of Michael Gorman in his exceptional study, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and... Read more
From WaPo, by Bill Gates: While there is justification for rewarding teachers based in part on how their students perform, compensation systems should use multiple measures, including classroom observation. In top-performing education systems in other parts of the world, such as Singapore and Shanghai, accomplished teachers earn more by taking on additional responsibilities such as coaching and mentoring other teachers and helping to capture and spread effective teaching techniques. Such systems are a way to attract, retain and reward the... Read more
… everyone. See this by Karen Yates? Too often we leave the job of hospitality, of friendliness and inclusiveness, to someone else (many times the already overextended pastor). Just like high school, we walk into church and sit with our same friends in our same section. On the patio we approach the people we know, the people we are closest with, because we want to hear about their week, about what’s been happening with their family, about their job or what-have-you.... Read more
I am often asked for book recommendations – accessible resources on evolution and the Christian faith, especially books for those without extensive scientific education; books useful for pastors, campus ministry workers, Christian parents, and such. About five years ago Daniel Harrell, then at Park Street Church Boston, now Senior Minister at The Colonial Church in Edina Minnesota, published a book, Nature’s Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith, that provides a useful resource. This is not a technical treatise on evolution... Read more
There is a radical difference between treating someone as an individual vs. treating someone as a person. That’s a strong claim, and there’s plenty of overlap — after all we’ve got an “I” and a “You” either way — but Andrew Root, in The Relational Pastor, sketches a thick description of the differences, and in this post we will look at six considerations. What happens to family, work and ministry when personhood rises to the focus? The problem we encounter all... Read more
This summer at Northern Seminary I will teach a public-open course on Women in Ministry. Here is a list of our summer offerings, and my course on Women in Ministry will be taught June 17-21. Here’s the official edu-scoop: Women in Ministry will focus on understanding, recognizing and encouraging the gifts God has given to women in the church. The course will focus on biblical texts about women, both from the Old Testament and the New Testament, with particular concentration... Read more
At Desiring God, Episode 56 of Ask Pastor John is about whether reading and quoting from a commentary written by a woman violates John’s reading of 1 Timothy 2:12. Here’s the link. I’ve heard other hiearchicalists respond to this question as John Piper responds and I would call what I have heard “exegetical gymnastics.” There is no way to find consistency between the hierarchicalist view and any kind of permission to learn from a woman, regardless of format of teaching... Read more
This post is by Jeff Cook and describes what he has learned about the church and about the Christian faith from two lesbians in his church community in Colorado. My discussions with pastors around the USA have revealed to me that at the local level the presence (and the non-presence by exclusion) of persons who are gay or lesbian in local churches often creates ambiguity — include, reject, in what ways? That is, here is what happens by way of... Read more
Anyone who engages in public discussions about the Bible seems to follow a predictable path — one learns most people don’t care or reverence the Bible, many think it’s all a matter of interpretation, and along come the apologists who think the Bible’s inerrancy has to be defended in order to maintain its authority, and then it becomes clear that authority is one of the problems … and we’re in a vicious cycle. This is why David Fitch and Geoff... Read more
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