I post this from Jim Bedell. From Jim Bedell: As the curtain gets pulled back on Willow Creek Community Church, the practices of the church are beginning to be revealed as a collective effort to create a smooth running and flawless image. The tactics used can be understood as essentially repressive. In other words, information about how the church was managed was secretive and kept from public scrutiny. From Non Disclosure Agreements to sending people away that many in the... Read more

Chapter three in Luke Timothy Johnson’s Miracles: God’s Presence and Power in Creation surprises me most. Why? Because Johnson wants to repossess an epistemology that makes miracles credible while accusing the secularist epistemology of an inadequate approach to knowledge and life itself. It’s totally refreshing. He begins where he ended in chp 2, with doublemindedness, something that infects so much of the church today. Double-minded Christians profess faith in the incarnation but insist on measuring the incarnate Jesus of the... Read more

By T In our first post of this series, we began our look at a “new but not entirely novel” development in Christian theology, pointed out by fellow Patheos blogger and scholar Roger Olson, that Jesus is the perfect revelation of the character of God . . . traced out to its logical conclusion and not left as a mere notion that does not permeate the whole body of belief. It is axiomatic that the Church could always stand to... Read more

Source: Why Study Theology? Reflections for the evangelical charismatic church 1st September 2018 By Lucy Peppiatt, who teaches at Westminster Theological Centre and is the author of Unveiling Paul’s Women A Charismatic Journey I remember very clearly, in my 30’s, realizing that I wanted to study theology at degree level. I had no idea that it would end with me doing a PhD, leading a college, writing books, and teaching. It hadn’t been a “career move”! I thought I was studying theology... Read more

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.  Amen. BCP Read more

Wonderful wonderful wonderful week with our third MA in New Testament Context cohort. We had a blast. So much so that the troll wondered what the noise was all about! My cohort named the troll “Gertie of Colosse” and so Gertie is the troll’s name. It is weeks like this and last, when Meanderings is the last thing on my mind, that Kris and JS deserve even more of my thanks! So thanks to both. Esports: JAKARTA (Reuters) – Skinny,... Read more

By Mike Glenn You’ll Never Graduate I can still remember when I earned my final degree. I walked across the stage, accepted my diploma, shook hands with a bunch of people I didn’t know, walked off the stage and vowed never to read another book again. If I ever saw a list of required reading, it would be too soon. As far as I was concerned, my education was complete. I was done. I had graduated, and that was that.... Read more