I grew up in a tradition that opposed the use of recited prayers as “vain repetitions.” We weren’t taught to “pray” the Psalms but to read them and to learn about our own prayers from them. We never recited the Lord’s Prayer in public worship. And the very thought of using written prayers was “strickly verboten.” (Of course, I know the word is “strictly” but we didn’t pronounce it that way.) We were flat-out wrong and deprived ourselves both of... Read more
What would you advise Hillary Clinton to say? From WaPo: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to deliver a “major policy address” today about Internet freedom. According to the Associated Press, Clinton will warn that governments if you repress citizens online, you do so at your own risk. Clinton’s speech comes at a sensitive time for North African and Middle Eastern countries that are struggling to contain protests inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. What do you think... Read more
Did you see this piece on USA Today? Has the weight now shifted so that the “battle” is effectively over? I think it has. You get the sense, observing the shifting cultural landscape, that we’ve reached a point on gay rights that is similar to that moment in a football game, or an election, or a relationship, when you know it’s over even though it’s not over. It appears increasingly obvious that social acceptance of gay men and lesbians and insistence... Read more
Francis Collins, in the brief stretch between stints as head of the Human Genome Project at NIH and, now, Director of NIH, put together a book, Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith, an anthology of readings he finds helpful in discussing rational reasons for belief in God. The anthology is, in some sense, a supplement to his book The Language of God. The essays and excerpts in this book will not provide a proof for the existence of God... Read more
Yesterday I sketched a vision of where we’ve been. I suggested that Gabe Lyons points us in the right direction for understanding where we’re headed with his book (The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America). I also suggested that the “next Christians” are radically reforming what has been traditionally called “the Christian life” and that means discipleship programs that focus on traditional disciplines will also change. Let’s say the traditional disciplines are prayer, Bible reading... Read more
From a FB friend, now edited just a bit: Thank you again for visiting our church in San Diego. Your talk was invaluable. Although I am in seminary, I am relatively new to the evangelical world (and the bible in general). Having always been a strong feminist, I was surprised to discover that much of the church culture (at large) left me feeling like I didn’t have a seat at the table (and that I had travelled in a time... Read more
Do you buy “Christian”? Do you even look? Does it influence you when making a decision for a purchase? From Barna: Read more
Richard Beck, a prof at ACU, posts … The difference between Generations X and Y isn’t in their views of the church. It’s about those cellphones. It’s about relationships and connectivity. Most Gen X’ers didn’t have cell phones, text messaging or Facebook. These things were creeping in during their college years but the explosive onset of mobile devices and social computing had yet to truly take off. So why has mobile social computing affected church attendance? Well, if church has... Read more
Gabe Lyons labels contemporary Christians the “next Christians” in his new book (The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America). He calls these next Christians “restorers” and finds the following six characteristics: Gabe provides six characteristics of the Restorers: 1. They are Provoked, not offended. 2. They are Creators, not critics. 3. They are Called, not employed. 4. They are Grounded, not distracted. 5. They are in Community, not alone. 6. They are Countercultural, not relevant. The other day my mind wandered... Read more
The Name of God. Speaking the Name of God. But not using or speaking the Name of God lightly or misusing or using in vain … but how? And what about Christians, non-Hebrew speaking Christians, who never use YHWH and use translations that have LORD and not YHWH? What about us? What are we to learn from this? Does it even “apply” to us? What about you — Do you have any scruples, rules, or principles to follow when it... Read more
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