Although you would never know it from listening to American preaching, Jesus linked poverty with the kingdom of God and affluence with sin. The text of the first sermon Jesus preached was taken from Isaiah 61: The spirit of the…
Needed: Christian ministers who do the stuff
A dramatic story—perhaps an urban legend—about John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard Movement, relates to something that happened following his conversion to Christianity around 1963. It is said that he began attending a church nearby. After several…
A matter of definition
Confession time: I really enjoyed the movie Frozen the first time I saw it. And the second. And the third. And the several dozen after that too. You see, two of my three kids are at a prime Disney age…
Communities, borders, and “Persons of Peace”
“We pray and walk through our community, looking for persons of peace with whom we can connect.” “Persons of Peace.” That’s a term I’ve heard multiple times during my summer sabbatical study of how churches are engaging in Christian community…
A seminary finds a golden gateway. Others find a rusted exit.
A couple of days after the announcement that the deal to sell the property and buildings of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary had been completed, I was in San Francisco. Sunday afternoon I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge into…
blessed are the barely there
Believing in God is hard. If anyone tells you otherwise they’re lying, or they’ve been frozen for eons under a housing development in Southern California like a Cro-magnon Brendan Frazier in Encino Man*. (*NOTE: “The 90s were the gilded age of…
A proper starting place
With three parts out of several written and published, I have enjoyed reading David Gushee’s careful examination of the issue of homosexuality and the church. The care and sensitivity he is bringing to the issue combined with an obvious desire…
Embrace the variety
I read a blog post recently that really got me thinking. In the post, fellow ABP blogger, Alan Rudnick advocates for services based on differing worship styles to be de-segregated, that is, to be replaced by blended services containing multiple worship expressions….
The complexity of short-term missions
Lately I’ve had the privilege to be part of great discussions about how to improve our current short-term mission praxis. Many of us know that something is wrong with the way we do short-term work, and thankfully there are a…
Dallas preacher says Jesus would seal the border
The Rev. Robert Jeffress thinks Jesus would build a fence at the U.S. border so desperate children from violence-ridden countries would be discouraged from heading north. “Yes, Jesus loved children,” Jeffress admits, “but he also respected law. He said, render unto Caesar the…
National Welcoming Week
Recently I went to an Iftar. This is the evening meal eaten during Ramadan by Muslims after the sun goes down. In Houston, where 25% of the population is foreign born, it is easy to become friends with someone from another faith,…
Is the church too busy attending meetings and talking with itself?
All my life I have loved attending denominational celebration events and conventions. I love least the formal meetings. I love most the networking. I love seeing my friends in ministry and meeting new friends in ministry. It is part of…