In some realms of the church, questions about women in leadership are moot. “Why are we still talking about this?” we’ve heard. “Is this topic really still a thing?” In other evangelical subcultures, we hear similar comments with the complete opposite meaning: “Why can’t people just accept what the Bible says? Why are we still debating this?” Between the two extremes, people have questions. My co-author and I collected some of the most common ones and attempted not to answer... Read more
McGahan Publishing House offers a unique Bible project in the form of an attractive, solid, hardbound copy of the Hebrew Scriptures. Using the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), the volume follows the traditional, canonical ordering of the Old Testament books: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Such ordering mimics the sort of Scriptures that Jesus and his Jewish peers would have read. Prefacing each book and each major section are short introductions written by leading scholars of the Hebrew Bible.... Read more
Over the last few months, my microphone has gotten more work than my keyboard. Usually I’m writing my thoughts on God, his Word, the church, and books that address all of that and more. But life has been busy this fall, between full-time work, doctoral studies, grief, and family shenanigans such as winning the marching band state title. Blogging had to wait. But surprisingly, the last few months have opened up opportunities for me to talk more, and more publicly,... Read more
Sandra Glahn’s publisher has just added Latte with Luke to Mocha on the Mount, Java with the Judges, Espresso with Esther…. Her seven-week study in Luke’s Gospel makes number twelve in the Coffee Cup Bible Study series. With this release the series re-launches with a great new cover and, even more fun, my endorsement on the cover! (I have been a fan of this series since before the first one launched in 2006.) Recently, she answered some questions for my... Read more
Over the weekend a certain tweet about single women made the rounds, gathering eye-rolls and gag reflexes with every RT and QT it earned. The great wisdom of this particular theobro* centered on the choice of single women to forego marriage and children. Read for yourself. Let’s pour a vat of salt on Dale’s words here and assume he wasn’t trying to insult single women. I know, I know. To paraphrase: Women who choose singleness, and therefore childlessness, are selfish... Read more
As a life-long reader of the Bible—yes, by third grade I’d worn out the Children’s Bible in my free time—I’ve gone through stages on how to best understand what I was reading. At age eleven, I’d asked for my own copy (received two) and began muddling through how to understand it. I knew the Old Testament stories, but what about the letters and prophets and Gospels and … Revelation? I vividly remember flopping onto my bed a few months after... Read more
Chances are, if you follow national and international news at all, you’ve heard or read about evangelicals. The presidency of Jimmy Carter, a self-proclaimed “born again” Baptist, brought the term into popular American vocabulary. And so began decades of understanding evangelicalism through a quasi-political lens. What is Evangelicalism? But evangelicalism is historically a name for a particular brand of Christian faith made popular in America during the 18th century. In recent years, theologians and church leaders have attempted to refine... Read more
One of the most basic practices of Christian spirituality is prayer, communicating with God directly. We pray against the evils humans perpetrate upon one another, we pray for guidance and provision, we pray for strength and wisdom. If we need it and can’t get it on our own, we turn to God. Prayer is a mystery, however, because God doesn’t always answer the way we’ve asked. My friend Jodie, a veteran women’s minister and now an award-winning podcaster and author... Read more
A few weeks ago I posted an interview with Mary DeMuth, author of The Most Misunderstood Women of the Bible, a title we were anticipating at the time. Anticipate no longer—the book is out and waiting to be bought and read by an eager audience. What’s the premise? Mary revisits ten women—some well-known, some rather obscure, but all misunderstood in some way—by telling their stories in fiction form. She follows each narrative with a scholarly, thoughtful analysis that explores... Read more
The Estuary
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*Romans: A Theological & Pastoral Commentary*: A Review
My pastor at First McKinney has led us through the book of Romans almost weekly for over a year. (We’re currently taking a short break to celebrate our 150th church anniversary.) His expositional speaking style has exposed our church family to an unusual (for Baptists) preaching strategy of going through even longer books of the Bible from start to finish. Of course, none is usually as long as Romans has been, but from the beginning, he explained why the exercise... Read more