Editor’s Note: This article is part of an online symposium, “Does Seminary Have a Future?” hosted at Patheos this month. Read other perspectives here. Seminary changed my life. Hands down, one of the formative experiences of my 28 years. I’m on the long term plan, finally reaching toward graduation this May after 5 years in a 3 year Master of Divinity program. For most of those years, I served in paid pastoral ministry, which demonstrates only that I have a... Read more
I thought this was interesting. I’m no economist, but this seems to be on to something… Read more
The Powers That Be by Walter Wink speaks to our day in profound ways. The broad theme of the Domination System is helpful in my reflections about issues of justice and equality in the world. One quote that really stood out to me comes from page 68: A society with an unfair distribution of goods requires violence. Violence is the only way some are able to deprive others of what is justly theirs. Inequality between rich and poor can be... Read more
Would love your thoughts. This blew my mind! Read more
For the past several weeks, many of us who believe that the economic values of the United States are broken, have watched Occupy Wall Street on the news with awe. There’s something about a nonviolent protest that gets any coffee-drinkin’ progressive excited about “stickin’ it to the man.” This prophetic display reminds many of us of the subversive Jesus who exposed the dehumanizing systems of the world – whether through overturning the unjust tables of the Temple or being executed... Read more
This article comes from an article by pastor Greg Surratt of Seacoast Church (a multi-site congregation). What are your thoughts??? Why do people leave? Sometimes people leave because of a misunderstanding. Some of the people who left in the early years thought that Seacoast was going to be different than it was. Some couldn’t understand the vision or wanted it to be more like the mother church or another church they had been comfortable in. Some people leave because of... Read more
Here’s a sermon I gave at a friend’s college ministry last week… Read more
What are your thoughts on this video??? Read more
Last month I went to the movies and watched “Contagion.” in short it was a movie depicting a wide spreading virus, which was unknown, and untreatable. Well that’s until they found a vaccine to somewhat contain the virus from spreading virally. I am not intending to give my review of the movie, on whether it was great and you should watch it, but there is something that got me thinking about the words “confinement,” “viral,” and in some sense how... Read more
O Lord, thinking about you, being fascinated with theological ideas and discussions, being excited about histories of Christian spirituality and stimulated by thoughts and ideas about prayer and meditation, all of this can be as much an expression of greed as the unruly desire for food, possessions, or power. Every day I see again that only you can teach me to pray, only you can set my heart at rest, only you can let me dwell in your presence. No... Read more
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