I don’t usually do political stuff on my blog. But I’ve had several people ask my why it is that I’m drawn to Barack Obama. I wanted to give a few sources that might perhaps explain why it is that I support him. The first is a video of a talk in which Obama tries to deal with the role of religion and politics. It’s a very good message and I would challenge all of my conservative Christian brothers and... Read more

I heard about this through a friend. I’m not sure why I care, but for some reason this just bothers me that nobody never asks these sort of questions of our elected officials and those who campaign for them whether they are family or not. If you want to read more about it the story is online at Vanity Fair. I guess I can understand wanting to look nice, even buying a whole outfit and having a pro make it... Read more

This is the prayer of self-dedication from the Morning Office of the BCP today. Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated unto you; and then use us, we pray you, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Read more

Pannenberg rocks my face off! I finally finished Wolfhart Pannenberg’s “The Church” today. The last chapter was worth the wait. It’s easily the best of the book. Here are some of the notes I took from it: “There is a theologically superficial enthusiasm that makes involvement in social ethics a substitute for the substance of an uncertain faith. Such a position creates mistrust and hampers and delays progress toward Christian unity.” 151 “the most important contribution that Christians can make... Read more

Last year I produced the first acb’s record. This is some of the coolest music from some of the nicest guys I’ve ever worked with. I’m really proud of this record. This week we heard that they are nominated by the “Pitch” for best pop act. They are on the cover of pitch this week. Here’s the article. Congrats fellas! Read more

I’m back to reading Pannenberg on the church. He’s talking about the role of eschatology in the church in ch. 4. What’s interesting is that this stuff could have come out of a typical mission church handbook published over the past 6 months. Here are a few quotes that stood out to me today: Apostolicity: is based in the eschatological motif of the early church. Pannenberg considers eschatology here to mean, “a consciousness of living in the presence of ultimate... Read more

I finally finished reading Being as Communion by John Zizioulas yesterday. It has taken me forever because I’ve been attempting a close reading & I kept getting distracted. It’s a pretty amazing book; one which is often referred to as one of the most important Christian theology books of the last half century. I read something in Zizioulas yesterday which blew me away. He describes what he calls the “double movement” of the church. The baptismal movement:“which renders the church... Read more

One thing I’m pretty sure of is that if God exists as Trinity and has created humans in God’s image, then most of our monisms and dualisms are distortions of the way the world really is. At dictionary.com monism is defined… Monism: the reduction of all processes, structures, concepts, etc., to a single governing principle; the theoretical explanation of everything in terms of one principle. I’ve found a new word which seems to get at some of what my angst... Read more

It’s interesting to hear MacArthur attack the emerging church and say that the scope of the gospel of Christ is utterly limited to propitiating God & eliminating the guilt of sin and that this “is the only reason he came. He didn’t come to fix life here. He didn’t come to eliminate poverty. He didn’t come to eliminate slavery…he came to save people from eternal hell.” It really makes me wonder how he gets around the sermon on the mount... Read more

God, the creator and sustainer of the universe – Father, Son and Spirit – my redeemer and Lord. My wife Kristin – the truest person & and friend I have known – whom I love ardently, fervently, more than any person on earth. My boys Nicholas & Lewis – full of love, laughter, passion & play – who have graced my life and transformed a marriage into a family. My family who raised me, and my extended family on both... Read more