Discipleship: Does Location Matter?

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 10:00 am By Scot McKnight

Frank Viola contends organic churches are the most natural place for discipleship to occur. What do you think? Does location matter? Does context matter? One of the most striking observations I’ve made over the last 21 years is how disciple-making operates in an organic church compared to a more traditional/institutional church. Those who stress the importance of discipleship today take their cue from Jesus’ exhortation to His disciples to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). Yet a significant... Read more

Paychecks and …

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 9:44 am By Scot McKnight

… Yes, paychecks and body size. The latter correlates with the former. MINNEAPOLIS — It’s an endless cultural lesson that’s been drilled into our heads since we were tots, watching cartoons such as “The Flintstones” and playing with Barbie and Ken dolls: If you are a woman, you should be extremely thin; if you are a man, you should be big and strong. And while we’ve grown accustomed to research finding that such stereotypes play out in the workplace —... Read more

Memoir-arrhea

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 9:55 am By Scot McKnight

Too many, and that’s not just a fact but a sadness. I was sitting once with an editor who said to a group of would-be writers: “If you want to write a memoir, get over yourself. No one’s interested.” I’ll not forget Janna’s line. There was a time when you had to earn the right to draft a memoir, by accomplishing something noteworthy or having an extremely unusual experience or being such a brilliant writer that you could turn relatively... Read more

Goldingay’s Proposal for Tithing

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 1:41 pm By Scot McKnight

John Goldingay’s new book, Key Questions about Christian Faith: Old Testament Answers, collects his studies that address significant church issues. One of those pertains to giving of our monies. At the top of the list when it comes to giving money is the age-old, and for some little more than old-fashioned, question: Is tithing the norm? What do you think the Bible teaches about “giving”? Never count Goldingay out for a suggestive, if not provocative, angle on what the Bible... Read more

The Lord Alone 4

Last updated on: January 29, 2011 at 3:11 pm By Scot McKnight

The Second Command is not to make a graven image — an idol. Here is the text from Exodus 20:4-6: 4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third... Read more

John Wesley to Laurel

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 7:42 am By Scot McKnight

Names change and school names change, too. And they do this to reflect the mission of the school at times. But try as I may, the implication of “Laurel” eludes me. Anyone know? HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — John Wesley College is currently undergoing its 5th name change since its inception in 1903. The school, now to be known as Laurel University, has undergone each name change with intentions to “more clearly communicate its mission and focus,” said a spokesperson... Read more

Nick Kristof Determines which Hospitals are most Christian

Last updated on: February 1, 2011 at 12:06 pm By Scot McKnight

From his piece in the NYTimes about sanctions against Catholic hospitals that are excommunicating nuns and even hospitals for procedures deemed anti-life. What do you think of Kristof’s reasoning? The Situation Yet the person giving Jesus the heave-ho in this case was not a Bethlehem innkeeper. Nor was it an overzealous mayor angering conservatives by pulling down Christmas decorations. Rather, it was a prominent bishop, Thomas Olmsted, stripping St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix of its affiliation with... Read more

belief … the modern case (RJS)

Last updated on: February 1, 2011 at 7:50 am By RJS

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

Should Teachers Befriend Students? 3 (Sam Lamerson)

Last updated on: January 29, 2011 at 12:56 pm By Scot McKnight

GRADE INFLATION It had to be one of the most shocking letters that I had received as a professor. The sender was a student who was in the armed services (his name and service will be withheld to protect the guilty). He had been given a “C” in a class of mine that he was taking, and “given a ‘C’ is the proper terminology.” After the semester was over and grades were posted, I went to my box one day... Read more

A FB Comment (now even more public)

Last updated on: January 31, 2011 at 8:14 pm By Scot McKnight

I don’t know how to retweet FB status updates, but here’s a sign of wonder: “As a Coptic orthodox Egyptian I can say that never in my life have I seen Muslims and Christians come together in Egypt as they are now. I cried on Orthodox Christmas hearing about how Muslims protected churches from extremists by becoming human shields.” From Richenda Ghebrial-Ibrahim. Read more

In the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, what did the wise bring?