I read this clever post about ordination recently and it got me to thinking. What other “hot button” issues does the church need to rethink? For example, we call most people who believe in creationism “fundamentalists” because we assume the idea is “fundamental” to the Bible, whereas those who support evolution are somehow breaking away from the basics. But is that true? More to the point, should Christians even believe in creationism? Now, when I say “creationism” I mean... Read more

This post is a continuation of a proposal I made last week, arguing that perhaps lay people, like clergy, should be allowed and encouraged to take a sabbatical from regular church attendance.    On Monday, I addressed the underlying assumption behind my proposal. Simply put, the need for or even having the option to take a sabbatical seems to primarily be an American issue. On Tuesday, I got distracted by Mark Driscoll. Yesterday, I talked about how critical accountability would be to this... Read more

After having been distracted yesterday by Mark Driscoll’s ongoing attempt to discredit all of his critics, I wanted to get back to following up on my proposal that lay people show be allowed and encouraged to take a sabbatical from regular church attendance. On Monday, I looked at an underlying, but previously unmentioned, assumption behind my proposal. Namely, that this seems to be a particularly American issue, in that we are so over-saturated with churches and church programming that the idea of... Read more

    This is interesting. While I would have to respectfully disagree with the sentiment “Jesus didn’t have a church” (he DEFINITELY went to synagogue), I do appreciate his efforts to reach those outside the church. Live streaming church at a bar with free brunch (but no alcohol) sounds intriguing to me, but what do you think? Is this an ok alternative to “regular” church or should people make more of an effort to attend a traditional service in person?   Read more

    You probably read that headline and thought, “tell me something I don’t know.” It’s not exactly breaking news that Mark Driscoll doesn’t like critics. He really doesn’t like them when they come in the form of “internet bloggers”. (As opposed to those people who blog off the internet?) Of course, Driscoll is not alone in his disdain for critics. Nobody likes to be criticized. I don’t. Criticism hurts, especially when it’s true. What makes Driscoll different than other public figures... Read more

Last week I proposed the idea that lay people should be allowed and encouraged to take a sabbatical from regular church attendance. Having allowed that idea (along with your feedback ) to marinate in my mind over the weekend, there are several things I thought I would elaborate on from that first post and explore in more depth. Some of these follow up posts will be longer than others, but since “taking a sabbatical from church” isn’t the most conventional of... Read more

    Pat Robertson just can’t go off quietly into the sunset. That would be too easy. Instead, he seems to be on a mission to constantly outdo himself with more and more ridiculous and offensive statements. Then again, maybe it’s just a competition he’s got going on with John Piper. In that case, the race is neck and neck. In this quintessentially Pat video, Robertson explains how Jewish people are ignorant (and I would assume, therefore, partly to blame, right Pat?)... Read more

    If you have been looking around the blog world lately, then you’ve probably noticed a lot of conversation about young adults leaving the church. Bloggers like Rachel Held Evans and Christian Piatt (and I’m sure many others) have weighed in on the subject articulating well many of the reasons why young people seem to be leaving the church in droves. However, I’m not sure that after all of the back and forth we ever really discovered a way forward. In... Read more

    Wow. Just wow. I guess this means Jesus really hated the early church: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who... Read more