It’s the time of the year here in Chicagoland when bird variety is diminished. On and around our feeders were see chickadees and goldfinches and cardinals, and on the ground we see those sharply colored northern juncos. Sparrows, of course. But not much else. As I was observing their busy ways in the cold of winter this morning I thought of John Stott’s book, one that many may not even know about, called The Birds Our Teachers: Biblical Lessons from... Read more
Rhythms : Tentmaking 3 I have a wife and 2 small boys, I helped found and lead a local church, and I work around 20-30 hours a week either teaching at a local university or writing to help supplement my ministry-addiction. My wife who is just as much of tentmaker as I am, likewise works fulltime. In my own life, I find the difficulty of tent-making is thrust not as much on my family or on my work, but on... Read more
The Book of Revelation is a theopolitical text, a text assaulting the idolatries of the Roman Empire. This approach raises a number of vistas for reading the text. Michael Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation discusses this theopolitical reading of Revelation. It’s about empire. This is very popular today. In fact, many are suggesting anti-empire readings are motivated by one’s politics and not by solid historical readings. One could argue that... Read more
Nope, not the one in the backyard or on our feeder. Instead, I’m happy to announce — and have been asked to announce — that The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible is now in paperback. For about a year it has been available only in clothbound in the USA (though in paper in other countries), so I’m happy to see this book made cheaper and therefore more accessible. What’s the book about? It’s an introduction to how... Read more
Gina Dalfonzo has an excellent piece at CT on the need to resurrect courtesy as a defining virtue. I want us all to join in on the Jesus Creed pledge this Christmas to double our efforts to be courteous. This September, in response to a rash of teen suicides, columnist Dan Savage created the “It Gets Better Project.” The campaign quickly garnered attention from all over. Soon everyone from celebrities to legislators to President Obama was making videos addressing teens who... Read more
We will take a brief break from consideration of Denis O. Lamoureux’s book Evolutionary Creation returning to Ch 5 next week. A couple of people forwarded an article to me – published in a number of papers last Friday: Scientist Alleges Religious Discrimination. Just a teaser here – read the whole article by following the link to the Washington Post site. LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An astronomer argues that his Christian faith and his peers’ belief that he is an evolution... Read more
I’ve never taught Leviticus when students weren’t at least curious about the Old Testament food laws? The big questions are “Why?” or “What’s this stuff about?” Paul Copan, in Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God, examines food laws. Do you observe the food laws of the Old Testament? Do you eat pork? shellfish? any meat cooked in milk or a milky gravy? Any kind of sauce on pasta (with meat) that has milk in... Read more
Last weekend I was in the LA area participating in Saddleback’s apologetics weekend. (My talk on The Radical Message of Jesus.) The question for the weekend — five services and five speakers — was this: What child is this? The five speakers were Chris Wright, Scot McKnight, Greg Koukl, Peter Kreeft and Phil Yancey. I’m not sure how Rick Warren knew this, but I just had a chapter in a book on this very topic — and it was my... Read more
Here is a fundamental problem in churches: self-sufficiency. Or instead of self-sufficiency, maybe we should say “omni-competency.” Or perhaps “empire building.” What I’m getting at is the sense that each church, in each community, no matter how far apart or close together those churches are … each church thinks it has to do everything, by itself, on its own, and find budget and time to do it all — on its own. But Chip Sweney, with Kitti Murray, have now... Read more
Many pastors in our country choose to work a second job in order to help create their churches. Recently this trend of bivocational pastors (or “tentmakers”) has become more popular, specifically for those who believe the church itself is a missionary community entering into a specific culture. Chris Ridgeway suggested in a previous post that the job of the missional tentmaker should have “some coherence or link to the community the church is reaching”. One might argue that pastors should... Read more
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