(H/T) In March of last year my wife, Kim, opened up a letter that would shape our lives for the next four years. It was “Match Day” and along with thousands of other medical students across the country she was finding out which residency program she had matched with. To our great surprise, we discovered we be moving from Tennessee to Connecticut. Around this same time we had another surprise – Kim was pregnant. Needless to say, that time was... Read more

(H/T) What I Want To Do I want to attempt the impossible. I want to try to combine the orderly, coherent accounting of systematic theology with the style, structure, and limitations of the blog post. I’m calling it “blogmatics.” It will be series of blog posts addressing, dissecting, and articulating the core doctrines of the Christian faith. Now, I am under no illusions that this may turn out to be a total failure, or at least end up causing more... Read more

First things first. This is a bit convoluted, but I want to give credit where credit is due. I initially came across this story over at Christian Nightmares, then read about it at Joe.My.God., before finally seeing the actual letter (seen below) at The Smoking Section. Ok, now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way. Are you kidding?! I’ve seem some ridiculous, absurd, and disgusting uses of the so-called prosperity gospel before, but this one ranks up there near the... Read more

I think we would all agree that there are few groups of people on earth that are more un-Christlike, heinous, callous, thoughtless, and despicable than Westboro Baptist “Church.” Protesting funerals will get you that sort of reputation. But apparently Fred Phelps and company aren’t satisfied with being one of the most un-Christlike, heinous, callous, thoughtless, despicable group of people on earth. They want the top spot all to themselves. How do you possibly do that? By picking on 5 year... Read more

This weekend I went to see Man of Steel. I liked it. Didn’t love it. Actually, I was kind of disappointed. Going in, I heard over and over again about how much Jesus imagery there was in the movie. So, naturally, being an ordained minister, I prepared myself to lead the audience in an altar call following the movie. Unfortunately, Man of Steel didn’t turn out to be quite the modern reinterpretation of the gospel I was led to believe,... Read more

(picture found here) This is a follow up to a post I wrote recently about biblical inerrancy. It’s a clarification of sorts, or at least an elaboration on what I do and do not believe about the Bible and why.   I am an ordained elder in and lifetime member of the Church of the Nazarene. We are a denomination in the Wesleyan-Arminian tradition that grew out of the American Holiness Movement. Bringing together several like-minded groups who all shared... Read more

Not too long ago we learned that Jesus has some serious breakdancing skills. Which really shouldn’t have been a surprise as “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.” Well, now it seems that Jesus is taking his divine breakdancing skills public. Unfortunately, you’ll have to travel across the pond to see this epic mural in person. Giant mural of Jesus breakdancing unveiled in Bristol Artist Cosmo Sarson spent four days and used a kilogram of... Read more

As many of you know, I started writing a monthly faith and politics column called Church & State for the folks over at A Deeper Story. This month I’m talking about how Stephen Colbert is ruining America. You read that right. Check out the preview below, then click through to read the rest of the post to find out how he’s doing it. Stephen Colbert Is Ruining America Do you remember the trays we all used to eat off of in our elementary school... Read more

For all the cool technology the Star Trek series has inspired, one of its overlooked, but perhaps most praiseworthy elements was its approach to race relations. Yes, the aliens were cool to look at, but Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a utopian future where humans and aliens intermingled equally in a free society was a not so subtle critique of race relations in the United States, particularly the racially charged United States of the 1960s when Star Trek made its television debut.... Read more

….well almost. On Friday, I turned in the edited and revised manuscript for my first book, The Scandal of Holiness: Dirty Hands, Unclean Lips, and the Power of Redemptive Embrace. It’s the almost conclusion to a journey that began over 2 years ago. The conclusion will come this September when the book is finally released. The message of this book is something near and dear to my heart. I grew up in tradition for whom the call to holiness was... Read more