Two stories unfold with every story in the Bible – The Lower Story and the Upper Story. The Lower Story is the one being written and told from a six-foot perspective – a horizontal and linear viewpoint. The Upper Story is the one being written and told from above, from God’s perspective – a vertical, holistic viewpoint. In the Lower Story we are dealing with things in the here and now – paying bills, dealing with conflict, getting over a... Read more
I’ve been a teaching pastor for close to 14 years, which means that for a decade and a half, I have passionately and wholeheartedly devoted myself to this thing we call worship. So, when I caught this glimpse of Rob Bell’s interview with Peter Rollins, about his forthcoming book Insurrection, I was intrigued to say the least. Pyro-Theology from Peter Rollins on Vimeo. “Christianity promises substantive transformation and, if we’re lucky, some of it might happen in church.” Not exactly... Read more
Last Thursday marked the 77th anniversary of the founding of the Sword of the Lord newspaper in Dallas, Texas in 1934. The Sword, founded by my granddad, John R. Rice, became the most influential fundamentalist publication of the twentieth century. In addition to editing the Sword until his death in 1980, John R. Rice preached thousands of sermons, wrote scores of books, and mentored hundreds of younger preachers such as Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham. Granddad went at his task... Read more
Naked Roma boy rummaging through trash heap. In 2008 I had the opportunity to serve the poorest of poor. There is a people group in Honduras known as, “the people of the dump” who literally live, eat, work, and sleep in the city trash dump. Inside this trash dump there exists disease, human excrement, germs; where people can be found working near mangy dogs, cows, and vultures. The smell is nauseating and the flies are numerous. Many people have... Read more
I came across this story just now on Twitter – HT: Steph Olson: ABC Buys Spiritual Drama From ‘Lost’ Exec Producer Carlton Cuse And Pastor Rob Bell Carlton Cuse has teamed with author/pastor Rob Bell for Stronger, a drama project with spiritual overtones, which has been sold to ABC via ABC Studios in a hefty script deal. Stronger, which the former Lost co-showrunner and the founder of Michigan’s Mars Hill Bible Church are co-writing and executive producing, revolves around Tom... Read more
Ewrin McManus is one of my favorite church leaders – period. Here’s a glimpse into why… (more…) Read more
In my lifetime, I’ve been around folks that leave churches because they claim the sermons aren’t “deep enough.” Sometimes this is valid. Other times, it’s a cop-out. Valid = sermons are pop-psychology attempting to give a four point format for fixing your life. Instead of immersing us in the story and looking for intersections to the stories of the first century world and our twenty-first century world; these sermons give us facts about felt needs and use abstracted verses to... Read more
Below is an interview between myself and OT Scholar Pete Enns. He is one of the foremost thinkers on critical scholarship and evangelical faith. You can read his thoughts on Ecclesiastes below, which in my opinion is one of the most confusing books in the bible. You can read the other parts of the series here…. ———————————— What do you think are some misunderstood passages in the book? There are a few passages, in my opinion, that are often misunderstood... Read more
I want to hear from you! What blog posts, articles, stories, videos, etc are you engaging with this week? Share them here and I will compile a list each week to share as a blog post at the end of the week. What blogs got you excited to serve Jesus? Which ticked you off? Any cool web content that didn’t make it big? Let me know! So, in the comments section of this post, share something about what your reading... Read more
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