Reconciliation: Dr. King’s main agenda

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

There have been many political movements throughout history that were successful without being morally virtuous. What works and what’s right are often in opposition to one another. We are now living in a time when political success is directly related to how sleazy and manipulating a politician is willing to be (and how much money his/her supporters have). But Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday offers an opportunity to dream about a time when taking the higher moral ground resulted in... Read more

The Name that Shakes the Earth

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

Sermon preached 1/14/2012 at Burke UMC LifeSign Text: Isaiah 6:1-8 Do you have a place that’s sacred to you? My sacred place is a lake outside of Charlottesville called Sugar Hollow. I went there every weekend when I was in college at UVA. It’s surrounded on three sides by mountains. There’s a black sand beach on which I’ve taken many naps. Whenever I go back to my favorite lake, I get a feeling in my heart as I drive up... Read more

Why I hate doctrine but love Jesus (response to a similarly named video)

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

Over the last two days, a video by spoken word artist Jeff Bethke called “Why I hate religion but love Jesus” has gone viral on youtube. (more…) Read more

Selling sex in the Christian bookstore

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

All of a sudden, sex is everywhere in the Christian blogosphere. Seattle megachurch pastor Judah Smith is starting a sermon series called “Jesus is bringing sexy back.” This Friday, Texas megachurch pastor Ed Young is going to lie in bed with his wife on the roof of their church as a 24 hour “sexperiment” (hopefully without doing anything that will get them hypothermia) in order to promote their book Sexperiment which challenges Christian spouses to have sex 7 days in... Read more

Imagine church without celebrity

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

I found an article today that gave me a lot of hope. It listed the 12 defining qualities of an underground Christian movement in Asia, which offered a refreshingly different paradigm for doing church than building a cult of personality around a tenacious, charismatic, good-looking thirty-something white male church planter guy (which is the model that I’ve assumed that I’m supposed to follow even though I’m not charismatic or good-looking). Apparently this movement is kind of like a house church... Read more

Alpha Male vs. Man of God

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

What is the difference between an alpha male and a man of God? I’m finding myself wrestling with this question as I contemplate the following passage from Mark Driscoll’s new book Real Marriage. In choosing a church, it must be a church that the husband wants to attend. Too often the wife is the one choosing the church because it meets her emotional needs and the children’s programming needs… A man chooses a church not so much because of style... Read more

Five Things I Liked In Tebow’s Autobiography

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

I’ve decided to do something contrary to my nature, as part of my personal recovery from cynicism. I’m going to say five nice things about Tim Tebow’s autobiography that one of my church members gave me to read. I don’t agree with all of Tebow’s theology. His approach to evangelism wouldn’t have gotten a “sinner’s prayer” out of me. But I do think he’s a good guy who’s trying to exploit whatever media attention he gets for the sake of... Read more

The Father who isn’t fair

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

Sermon preached at Burke UMC LifeSign service 1/8/2012 Part 1 of Lord’s Prayer series “On Earth As It Is In Heaven” Text: Luke 15:11-32 (The Prodigal Son) My first political protest took place in my 11th grade English class. We had a very strict teacher named Mrs. Shields. One day we were reading an amazingly boring essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and almost our entire class had fallen asleep. So the next day, Mrs. Shields gave us a pop test.... Read more

Six Questions from the Hell Debate

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

Last year was a year of vigorous theological wrestling for me in the wake of the “hell debate” triggered by the release of Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. What I realized is that it wasn’t so much a debate between whether or not people believe in hell (though I suppose there are some Christians who don’t), but more a debate about what hell really looks like given the understanding that we have of God’s nature. This post that I put... Read more

Why gender hierarchy makes no Biblical sense to me

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:36 pm By Morgan Guyton

My wife and I decided to do something bold for our wedding. Each of us preached while the other person washed our feet, rotating halfway through the sermon. The text we preached on was the controversial Ephesians 5:22-33 passage which says, “Wives, submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord.” I’ve been thinking of our sermon lately as I’ve encountered the reviews of megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll’s new book Real Marriage, which apparently takes his views on the... Read more