Bruce W. Longenecker, Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty, and the Greco-Roman World. Reviewed by Wes Vander Lugt PhD candidate, University of St Andrews Caring for the poor is a prominent theme throughout the Bible, but some argue that the apostle Paul is an exception to the rule. According to this perspective, Paul’s main concern was the Gospel of Jesus Christ to which the plight of the poor was a peripheral issue. Is this perspective accurate, or does it misread and... Read more
… but we need it. It’s called the Epic Fail Pastor’s Conference. It’s for failures. Back in August I wrote a post on the blog called EPIC FAIL Pastors’ Conference. It was an idea (mostly theoretical) that had been stirring in me for a while that I finally found some time (and words) to tell about it. I was blown away. Thousands of hits. Hundreds of emails, phone calls, text messages. Dozens of comments. I hadn’t posted anything that came close to... Read more
Our favorite tree in Safety Harbor Dave Dunbar, in his monthly entry to Missional Journal: “A sabbatical from politics–that’s what I proposed in the last Missional Journal. In light of what James Davison Hunter has termed the “politicization of nearly everything” it seems wise for the church to recalibrate its approach to cultural engagement. In spite of three decades of political activism, we have seen little return on investment. In fact, if we accept the basic assessment of sociologists like... Read more
I got both of these encouraging notes on the same day this week. This first one is from a pastor about The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. For the past 30+ years, there has been an ongoing discussion at our church about the role of women in the church. Over that time, there were slow steps forward that got us to the point we had been at for the past several years – women could teach and... Read more
It is entirely reasonable for Christians to analyze the theology of President Obama, but it is troubling to hear so many state publicly that his faith is not Christian but instead he’s a Muslim. By Dan Gilgoff at CNN.com: President Barack Obama gave an unusually personal speech about his religious faith on Thursday, saying that “it is the biblical injunction to serve the least of these that keeps me going and keeps me from being overwhelmed,” in address to a... Read more
If one more person writes another book that says we need to be missional I think my head will pop. Enough already I keep saying: yes, missional. But define and show us what it means. That is why I like Helen Lee’s book, The Missional Mom: Living with Purpose at Home & in the World. It’s missional, but it’s concrete and it’s local. And it also why I like Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford’s new Right Here, Right Now: Everyday... Read more
Any reasonable examination of “intercessory” prayer admits of two explanations: either we are seeking to bend God’s will to ours — or seeking to change the mind of God — or we are merely aligning ourselves with God’s will in the act of communing with God. John Goldingay, in his new book Key Questions about Christian Faith: Old Testament Answers, is not afraid of what the Bible says about intercessory prayers and seeks to construct a theory of intercession on... Read more
We got some encouraging news recently. At least four college campuses have informed us that they will be using One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow — some in classes and others in small groups — and three different 20/30something Bible studies wrote recently to say they will be going through the book chapter by chapter. We were encouraged that Relevant both reviewed it and then grabbed an excerpt on vocation for its online viewers, and now a few more 20/30something publications... Read more
From CNN.com: That’s exactly what Kelley Williams-Bolar did, pulling her 12- and 16-year-old daughters out of the decrepit school they attended in Akron, Ohio, and enrolling them in a suburban district where her father lived. Williams-Bolar used her father’s address, where she alleges she lived part-time. Yet the Copely-Fairlawn School District felt she was lying about being a resident, and hired a private eye to follow her, videotaping Williams-Bolar leaving her public housing home and dropping her children off at... 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
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