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…. ———————————— How does all of this fit with the rest of the Bible? Isn’t Ecclesiastes way out of sync with the life of faith... 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…. ———————————— Your commentary on Ecclesiastes is due out this October. Tell us about the commentary series. What is distinctive about it? My commentary is... Read more
Every week I’m going to post a blog that simply points you to the “resource of the week.” It will be: theological, political, social justice focused, church ministry related, or some other random thing that I think will help Christ-followers in the journey. This week, I want to point your attention to an important book: Recovering the Scandal of the Cross by Mark Baker and Joel Green. When the first edition came out, conservative reformed folks were not too happy. ... Read more
When high school neared its end, a trend started within the Christian music industry. Some committed Christian bands began to get recognition outside of contemporary Christian markets. P.O.D. was of the first of several bands with a Christian message that signed with a secular label. For many of my friends, we saw this as a victory for the Kingdom of God because now we could point to the creativity of fellow Christians. Over time, many more bands started putting out... Read more
On Sunday afternoons I am going to invite you the readers to share a quick thought from your church experiences this past weekend. Share: Something insightful that challenged you in your life with God. Something hilarious that you heard or saw Something visual that you just had to take a picture of (Disqus comments allow you to upload a picture) Something that gave you a vision of the early church Something that felt contrived or superficial (be careful not to... Read more
Having just lived through the relatively tumultuous storm of Hellgate during which the Mars Hill Bible Church pastor Rob Bell asked some very awkward questions. In what seemed to resemble a Monty Python scene, the calvanistic big guns exclaimed ‘He’s not an evangelical, he’s a very naughty boy!’ What saddens me most about the whole issue is that it became almost impossible to have a sensible conversation about the subject without the feeling that you too were being both labelled... Read more
The following comes from the Mars Hill Website: Feeling the call from God to pursue a growing number of strategic opportunities, our founding pastor Rob Bell, has decided to leave Mars Hill in order to devote his full energy to sharing the message of God’s love with a broader audience. It is with deeply mixed emotions that we announce this transition to you. We have always understood, encouraged, and appreciated the variety of avenues in which Rob’s voice and the... Read more
This comes from a short article in the Washington Post “On Faith:” You can’t reconcile being pro-life on abortion and pro-death on the death penalty. Almost all the early Christian Fathers were opposed to the death penalty, even though it was of course standard practice across the ancient world. As far as they were concerned, their stance went along with the traditional ancient Jewish and Christian belief in life as a gift from God, which is why (for instance) they... Read more
The situation with Troy Davis is truly heartbreaking. Jesus calls us to care about life. Yet most American Christians refuse to be Pro-Life from the womb to the tomb. Something’s gotta change. Rather than writing my own reflection on the Troy Davis situation, I wanted to point your attention to an excellent post about it by David Henson. He expresses exactly how I feel on this situation. I may write in the future on the death penalty, but today I... Read more
A very good friend of mine is single. I’ve never considered him different from all my other friends, most of whom are married, but he feels he is. He is a Christian, like me, and till recently we attended the same church. The difference is that he often feels excluded in the sermons we both hear, while I don’t. Until he mentioned it to me, I never realized how often our speakers would refer to being married, having a family... Read more
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