In the next couple days, I’m wrapping up Draft No. 3, the penultimate version of my dissertation. Kenda Dean, my advisor, will look it over, and early next week she’ll distribute it to the other three members of my dissertation committee. How this works is, Kenda tells them which page numbers of the dissertation will most interest them — usually, the sections where I deal directly with their work. While they, of course, can read the whole thing, professors’ schedules... Read more
As I’ve been writing the posts exploring the possibility of Christian universalism, it’s become clear to me once again that I have a pretty different worldview from Jesus. Had I lived in his time, I’m quite sure that our worldviews would have been more similar, but a lot of water has passed over the dam since Jesus’ day, and it’s sometimes difficult to build a bridge back there. I also — no surprise here — hold a different worldview than... Read more
Being that I’ve been to Italy a dozen times, as a student, a tourist, and a tour guide, I’ve seen lots of creepy, medieval depictions of Hell. The most arresting may be the doors of the Duomo in Orvieto, a detail of which is shown above. Each of these depictions, however, is based on a cosmology that has long since been abandoned by Western intelligentsia. We now look someone curiously at earlier cultures, in which people believed that there was a... Read more
Well, kind of. I wrote a short devotional book a few years ago called, Twelve Days with Jesus. It was a work-for-hire for Mike and my friends at YouthFront, and I still get really nice comments from people who have used it. Now, Chris and my friends at Barefoot have re-released it. It’s really a great little guide for starting a devotional life based on the Gospel of Luke, and I’m still quite proud of it. At only $5.99, it’s... Read more
I wrote my post, “Which Missional Church?” last week in order to further hone my thinking on the matter. It succeeded. Not only are there many good comments on that item (see particularly the comment by Craig Goodwin, whose forthcoming book is excellent), I also heard back from others via Twitter and Facebook. Based on the responses there, I’d like to amend the two camps I laid out last week. First of all, on Twitter, David Fitch objected to being... Read more
After a few blessed weeks of not thinking about it, my dissertation arrived last week via overnight messenger from Kenda Dean, replete with comments on suggestions on nigh every page. I am now canceling appointments and putting off email responses until February 9, when the next (and penultimate) revisions are due back in Princeton. Ass is in chair, head is down, and nose is to the grindstone. Read more
I was asked this week to answer the question, What is the “Missional Church”? And it got me to thinking, again, about this slippery and elusive term. So I’ll put my thoughts here, in this public forum, and see if you think I’m on to something or not. My conclusion is this: There are two missional churches. More specifically, there are two movements of people within American Protestantism who claim the term “missional.” The First Missional Church This is a... Read more
As I wrote last week, I had the good fortune of co-leading the Solomon’s Porch sermon discussion on Sunday evening with Rabbi Joseph Edelheit — you can watch the full 50+ minute video here; it was streamed on UStream via my iPhone, so forgive the audio and video. I had asked Joseph, who serves as a kind of resident rabbi to Solomon’s Porch, to join me because we were tackling the 18th chapter of the Fourth Gospel, in... Read more
John Bohannon has taken to Scot McKnight’s blog to respond to a critical review of his book that I posted there last month. Here’s a taste: First, why should McLaren be exempt from a work that analyzes the preaching within the Emerging Church? Yes he has retired from the full time pastorate, but does this mean that he has stopped preaching and teaching altogether? Does this mean that a historical analysis of his homiletical practices is no longer valid or... Read more
I know that I said I’d write this week about Christian Universalism and cosmologies, but this week has gotten away from me, what with the launch of Social Phonics and all. Also, I’m leading the sermon discussion this Sunday at Solomon’s Porch, along with my dear friend Rabbi Joseph Edelheit, the official Rabbi of Solomon’s Porch. I asked him to sit on the stools that spin with me this week because the text we’re to tackle is John 18, which... Read more
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