I confess that I am still preoccupied with questions of time. My ongoing experimental attempts at time management are progressing slowly. My overall goal is to work on my schedule and job performance until I see the consistent and fruitful observance of Sabbath day every week. My most recent early to bed, early to rise approach has begun to bear at least a little bit of fruit. I’ve been setting my alarm for 5:30 every morning since sometime in March.... Read more
Daniel Kirk is one of my favorite bloggers. He wrote a very critical review of Michael Bird’s chapter in How God Became Jesus, a book written in response to How Jesus Became God by Bart Ehrman. Kirk takes issue with Bird’s sense of humor, but mostly Kirk takes apart Bird’s argument. Kirk’s critical analysis was that Bird makes assertions but not a coherent argument. Kirk’s main argument is that Bird doesn’t understand what Ehrman is doing, and therefore Bird’s attempt... Read more
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive For the record it’s: slat·tern·ly [slat-ern-lee] adjective: 1) slovenly and untidy; 2) characteristic or suggestive of a slattern. What is a slattern you ask? slat·tern [slat-ern] noun: 1) a slovenly, untidy woman or girl. 2) a slut; harlot. it. had. to. be. Happy Friday everyone. Read more
On Easter Sunday we showed this clip just before the sermon. When the song started, you could hear little voices all over the room start to sing along. The sound took my breath away. It was our kids. On Christmas & Easter we have all of our children, even the babies, join us in worship; that way no one misses out. They knew the song & couldn’t help themselves. After a couple lines the singing died away (I think the... Read more
Evangelicals are known for our skepticism of science. We’re also a tad bit prone toward conspiracy theories. I was a biology major at a state school known for agriculture, so I spent to much time listening to the dynamics of global warming to shrug it off as a hoax. Yet, we still have a fair number of folks in our tribe who deny the idea that climate change is even happening. Many think it’s happening, but humans aren’t contributing to... Read more
I confess that I love Easter Sunday. I love that everybody shows up for church on the same day. I love that the culture hasn’t found an effective way to completely commercialize it yet. I love that Easter means that family and friends will be spending long hours together talking, laughing, telling stories, and playing games. I love the energy in the worship. Most of all I love to tell the story about love overcoming fear, and life overcoming death.... Read more
I do not love poetry, typically, when it is not set to music. Wendell Berry is one notable exception, and this happens to be one of my favorites. I’m always struck by how clearly Berry is able to see and describe the consequences of the way we choose to act as a society. I love even more that his version of redemption always involves a little madness. “Be like the fox” he tells us, “who makes more tracks than necessary, some... Read more
I read a great post from Brian Zahnd this week, it’s worth a read. Here’s a quick excerpt. You can find the whole article and Brian’s blog here: When we say “Jesus died for our sins,” what does that mean? It’s undeniably an essential confession of Christian faith, but how does it work? This much I’m sure of, it’s not reducible to just one thing… To try to reduce the death of Jesus to a single meaning is an impoverished approach... Read more
So I found a neologism as yet unknown to me: Chreastians. It’s a mash-up of Christmas, Easter, and Christian meant to refer to the folks who only come around on Christmas and Easter. It’s a bad word both aesthetically and in it’s derogatory intention. Apparently there’s also the word Chreasters (Christmas and Easter) – equally troublesome. To be honest, these days I’m glad when anybody shows up to worship no matter what day it is – so the good news for... Read more
Every year on Maundy Thursday I wake up thinking about this painting. I’ve never seen it in person (bucket list), but I’ve known about it nearly my entire life. A copy of it was framed and hung in the second and third-grade Sunday School room in the tiny little Southern Baptist Church my family attended. When I was too bored or distracted to pay attention to the lesson I’d stare at this picture. It fascinates me to this day. Maundy... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In