Why Mark Driscoll’s Influence Will Never Last: Jonathan Merritt Nails it Again

Last updated on: October 24, 2013 at 9:12 am By Tim Suttle

Mark Driscoll is promoting his new book, in which he is calling out Christian leaders for being too confrontational and fostering too much infighting… What the what? It gets better. Driscoll’s big publicity stunt to promote his book on being less confrontational, was to show up uninvited at rival-Calvinist preacher John MacArthur’s “Strange Fire Conference” and confront him for being too exclusionary. Driscoll isn’t serious. Driscoll is just trying to sell books. Jonathan Merritt wrote an interesting piece on Mark... Read more

Monday Morning Confessional

Last updated on: October 21, 2013 at 7:39 am By Tim Suttle

I confess that I am still learning how to take a day off. One of the realizations I’m coming to is the idea that taking an actual Sabbath day requires a lot of preparation. Saturday has to be a pretty productive day, and I have to think ahead about what needs to be done in order to observe a Sabbath from Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon, and make sure it’s done. I confess that this week I did a pretty... Read more

Eric Berry Faces His Fear of Horses: A Little Friday Funny

Last updated on: October 18, 2013 at 6:34 am By Tim Suttle

Eric Berry faces his fear of horses and proves that he has a good sense of humor at the same time. The above clip is the only one I could embed but the longer version (done by NFL films), is really funny. I recommend watching the whole clip here. It talks a bit about Berry’s relationship with his father. The more I see this guy play, and learn about his life, the more happy I am that he plays for... Read more

The Tea Party As Religion

Last updated on: October 17, 2013 at 10:17 am By Tim Suttle

In the aftermath of the government shutdown, I’ve been reading quotes from Republican lawmakers, mostly senate Republicans, express frustration with the Tea Party. Nobody in Washington seems to be able to understand this bunch, much less work with them in any civil way. Many feel the Republican party is in the midst of a civil war. I’ve also been reading articles linking the Tea Party with fundamentalist religion. The idea seems to have first appeared at Bloomberg, in a post... Read more

The Controversy Over Malcolm Gladwell’s New Book

Last updated on: October 16, 2013 at 12:45 pm By Tim Suttle

Malcolm Gladwell’s new Book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants is at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller list for non-fiction. It’s strange that Gladwell comes in at number two behind Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus. I’m not sure I’m all that comfortable with either of those figures shaping the future of religious thought… nevertheless. Gladwell’s writing has been somewhat influential in ministry circles. His narrative approach is highly adaptable and appealing especially to those... Read more

Monday Morning Confessional

Last updated on: October 14, 2013 at 8:51 am By Tim Suttle

I confess that I’ve been so happy over the past few weeks as more of you are jumping into on Monday Morning Confessional with confessions of your own (mostly on Facebook). If we aren’t friends yet, send me an invite & you can read them there. I confess that I think confession is essential to a healthy soul. The practice of confession is all but disappearing from our culture. I think it’s being replaced by gossip, where we condescendingly make... Read more

Have You Outgrown Modern Worship Music?

Last updated on: October 13, 2013 at 7:13 am By Tim Suttle

I read a great post this morning from my friend Jovan Brown on his blog Toward Fatherhood. Jovan is talking about why he finds modern worship music to be less significant as he enters into the way of descent. He’s finding most of those songs are really designed for the way of ascent, or the first half of life. Here’s an excerpt: Eldredge calls it the Cowboy phase. Rohr calls it the Heroic Journey. It’s the young age of missions... Read more

Because You Need a Little Friday Funny: World’s Best Potty-talk

Last updated on: October 11, 2013 at 7:33 am By Tim Suttle

This is seriously the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time. No doubt that this little guy will be having a similar conversation with himself long about college, only it won’t be the food he’s lamenting. I seriously hope that this kid grows up with a sense of humor, because this video is not going away anytime soon. Enjoy your Friday everyone! Read more

Richard Rohr Download: A Few Thoughts and Quotes

Last updated on: October 10, 2013 at 10:44 am By Tim Suttle

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I got the chance to spend a few hours with Richard Rohr, along with the other members of the Associated Ministerial Order. We traveled to Albuquerque to the Center for Action and Contemplation to sit in conversation with one of the great teachers of our time on the subject of Christian prayer and the spiritual life. Here are a few thoughts and quotes from the first day: “Every time you choose to love, you... Read more

Monday Morning Confessional

Last updated on: October 7, 2013 at 10:39 am By Tim Suttle

I confess that I’m writing today’s confession from Albuquerque. I confess that I had to spell-check Albuquerque. I have been through Albuquerque before, but have never spent any time here, so this is a first… and I really like firsts. I’m sitting in an open air market in the Old Town, watching the street vendors set up their wares. It’s really charming. We are staying at the Norbertine Monastery just outside of town. There’s a massive hot air balloon meet... Read more