The Dangers of Segmenting the Gospel

A common tendency of evangelicals is to zero in on one issue in theology, ministry, or cultural engagement, and devote an exhaustive amount of effort and energy toward this issue. Often, in the exuberance of addressing a particular soapbox or hobby horse, all other issues are neglected. What results is a lopsided Christianity that is … Read more

Should Southern Baptists Retreat?

Matt Hall has a good post on the proposed resolution to urge all Southern Baptists to take their children out of public schools. Hall observes: My gut reaction is to simply condemn this with all the other fundamentalist retreat from culture – abandon the present system, create a separate “Christian” system, and be done with … Read more

New Revelations?

Add Ahmad Sadri and Mahmoud Sadri to the list of those who believe the absurd notion that American involvement in the Middle East is due to Christian pre-millenialism. By the way, Mister(s) Sadri, its Revelation (singular), not Revelations.

Advice From a Master

Martin Luther offered this advice to a discouraged preacher: If Peter and Paul were here, they would scold you because you wish right off to be as accomplished as they. Crawling is something, even if one is unable to walk. Do your best. If you cannot preach an hour, then preach a half an hour … Read more

Is There Any Hope for Honor?

Honor is but one of many virtues that seems to be disappearing from the landscape of American culture. The recent revelations about mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq by our soldiers are vivid reminder that moral abdication can happen anywhere. Of all places in American culture, the military is one of the few places where honor … Read more

Unhappy Churchmen

The latest Barna poll finds that men are not satisfied with their church experiences: The study found that more than 85 percent of the men did not feel “spiritually challenged” and, when compared to similar studies involving women, men were less likely to take leadership roles at church or set spiritual goals. This isn’t surprising … Read more

The Jesus Factor

PBS airs tonight what looks to be an interesting show on President Bush’s faith. It’s called “The Jesus Factor,” and is scheduled for 9pm EST. Here is an advance review from the New York Times. UPDATE: Apparently I’m on the verge of getting old. I wasn’t home, so I set my VCR to tape the … Read more

When Honesty Is Not That Honest

Chris Ayers, a pastor in Charlotte, NC, wants the church to be honest about biblical interpretation when it comes to homosexuality: Homosexual Christians do not need churches that force them to live a lie. They need love, acceptance and affirmation. Saying homosexuals should be tolerated is not enough. Saying homosexuals are welcome in a church … Read more

Emerging Into What?

The postmodern, or “emerging” church movement is one that is unique enough to attact press coverage from time to time. After all, it is this uniqueness that supposedly attracts its followers. These groups pride themselves on looking as much unlike a traditional church as they can, an idea that stems from the notion that traditional … Read more