Andy Stanley and I don’t have a whole lot in common, theologically speaking. But I met him once, and he was humble and charitable. This week, he became Al Mohler’s most recent whipping boy — and if that isn’t an example of internecine cannibalism, I don’t know what is. Andy Marin has an insightful post on the kerfuffle at Out of Ur: Recently North Point Community Church’s senior pastor Andy Stanley preached a sermon about the theological tension that is... Read more
I am extremely proud of this product for congregational study and adult faith formation. The video below is the first sneak peek. To find out more info when it becomes available this summer, sign up HERE. Read more
Pretty white, as it turns out. I asked Todd Ferguson of Baylor University to run crosstabs on the data that I collected in 2005. During my dissertation research, I collected 2,020 surveys from eight ECM congregations. You can read about my research and see some of the data in my book, The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement. Since then, I’ve let several researchers have my data for their own work. Todd is among them,... Read more
Mark Scandrette has written a letter to himself twenty years ago: Twenty something self, I speak the truth from kindness. So far life has been easy for you.. You’ve gotten by on natural talents and charm, but in the future you will have to work harder and smarter. You have good dreams and ideals, but it will take time to turn your bravado into tangible actions that others can see and affirm. The people around you are a mirror, giving... Read more
For years, people have been telling me that postmodernism is dead. The most recent is an article in Philosophy Now (sent to me by Russell Rathbun). It’s an interesting piece by Alan Kirby, who has a full book on the subject: Digimodernism: How New Technologies Dismantle the Postmodern and Reconfigure Our Culture. First among Kirby’s hypotheses is that, if postmodernism is dead, don’t look to “critical realism” for a successor: Postmodern philosophy emphasises the elusiveness of meaning and knowledge. This... Read more
Matthew Vines is an undergrad at Harvard. He’s also gay, and he’s a Christian. He’s taking some time off of school right now to fight marriage amendments, like the one in my state, Minnesota. He gave a talk in Wichita a couple weeks ago — you can see it above. He’s articulate, smart, and the video is worth 67 minutes of your time. Here’s what Leonard Pitts said about the video in the Miami Herald: Vines’ speech is a masterwork... Read more
If you’re not following Text from Dog, you’re missing out. It seems there’s a dog that keeps texting his owner, and his owner has been kind enough to post those texts for all to read. Read more
At least, that’s the conclusion of Bob Robinson: We Christians are complicit in this demise of political public discourse in the media. Instead of taking the time to read deeply and widely about policy, we watch the claptrap that the media serves and parrot it back to each other. We rarely seek to understand the opposition’s arguments. Instead, we act like simpletons, watching only the shows that we think we already agree with so that we don’t have to think... Read more
I hope that I was a small part of getting the word “vagina” back in Rachel’s forthcoming book: Well, good news— last week my editor informed me that “vagina” was a go. The word is back in the book! I’m not sure how this will affect purchases from Christian bookstores, but it doesn’t really matter to me anymore. You guys have reminded me that we have more power than we think, that writers in this industry need not accept the... Read more
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