How does one train for godliness? Consider the athlete with whom the Apostle Paul compares the Christian life, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians, 9:25).
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For some time I have been fascinated by the way the Apostle Paul lays out most of his letters. In a letter like the one he wrote to the Roman believers he lays out the Gospel using the indicative mood. That means that everything he writes from 1:1 to 6:10 is descriptive. There are no imperatives or commands given until 6:11, where he urges his readers to consider themselves to be, by God’s grace in Christ, dead to the rule or dominion of sin. Yet, he really does not give more detailed directives until he comes to 12:1-2.
Therefore, I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable act of worship; and do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind for the purpose of you being able to approve what the will of God is, the good, the pleasing and the perfect.
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Last week, I threw up a meme on my Facebook page. It’s a 1960 photo of a very young Ruby Bridges escorted by federal marshalls as Ruby became the first African American to attend William Frantz elementary school during the desegregation crisis in New Orleans. The meme included these words, “If this child was strong enough to survive it, your child is strong enough to learn about it.”
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Last week I published an article titled Can Church Planting Revitalize the Advent Christian Church? Its central premise was “although church planting sometimes seems at odds with church revitalization, it can be a means to revitalize churches because it puts the mission of being Christ’s witnesses to the world front and center.”
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In response to our Christmas letter to family and friends, we received a rather curious response from someone who accused us of living in fear because we take the necessary precautions regarding Covid-19. The person told us to start watching vvarious far-right media sources if we wanted to know what was right about Covid-19, and also indicated that “freedom and not safety” should guide our lives. We chose to respond with what we hope was kindness and grace while at the same time offering a clear understanding based on actual medical evidence and not political propaganda. A number of friends have told me of their frustration with vaccine deniers among their family and friends. And one Tennessee megachurch pastor told his congregation that anyone who wanted to wear a mask or who had been vaccinated was not welcome in his church. Sadly, he’s not the only one. So I share this letter with you in hopes that you might find it helpful in interacting with deniers.
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Jefferson Vann talks about the meaning of the phrase “eternal judgment” as it appears in Hebrews 6:2.
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How can we revitalize our churches, train leaders, and plant churches? Are these goals important? I suggest that although church planting sometimes seems at odds with church revitalization, it can be a means to revitalize churches because it puts the mission of being Christ’s witnesses to the world front and center. Through planting churches, local churches will see the imminent need to train leaders who can lead their church and send them off to plant new ones locally. The problem will necessitate solutions.
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In most situations, is God’s will for your life really some great mystery? Yes, there are exceptional circumstances in which you are faced with competing values and the resulting confusion, but is it generally so complicated?
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Like me, you’ve probably noticed a rise in the number of people who identify as “progressive Christians”. And if you’re like most people, you’ve wondered, “What the heck does that mean?” Well, that question is difficult to answer for a couple of reasons…
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With the new year at hand, permit me to share some of my best reads from 2021 with you. I don’t claim that these are the best books of the year, just that they are books that I particularly enjoyed and that I think you might as well. My reading focuses on three broad areas–history (especially Christian history), theology, and Christian formation. I need to read more novels and hopefully 2022 will be the year I get to some of those on my shelves. So here are my top eight for 2020-21, not in any particular order.
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Two-thousand plus twenty-two,
a number closer than twenty-one.
Unto time unknown, tis true,
to that different day under the sun…
This year, I found a new biography that looks at MLKs life from a fresh perspective–that of Martin Luther King’s Christian faith and the philosophical and theological impulses that shaped his convictions and his work: Martin Luther King: A Religious Life by Paul Harvey. In this post, I explore a fascinating subnarrative, MLKs what ministry leadership lessons we can learn from his work.
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In April 2021 our denomination passed a new resolution (#21-08) on Human Dignity, specifically addressing prior resolutions regarding abortion[…]If we are to take this resolution seriously, I believe we also need to apply the same reasoning to the topic of capital punishment.
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Anxiety can be debilitating.
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In “the best Christmas gift” Jefferson Vann shares some thoughts about the gift of Jesus Christ, based on his translation of Hebrews 1:1-4.
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This time of year I am drawn again and again to the prologue of John’s Gospel. I never get tired reading through it slowly, contemplatively and prayerfully. At times I try to imagine what it must have been like for those early first and second century Christians to have heard it read in their assemblies for the first time or to have had the great gift of setting their eyes on a copy of it. What no doubt would have immediately caught their attention was the phrase “En archē ēn ho logos” (In the beginning was the Word). The Logos would have been somewhat familiar to both Jewish and Gentile believers.
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As I write this, I agonize over the painstaking task of sending my wife, Robin, Amazon links to things I’d like her to buy me for Christmas. What’s on my list? Beard balm, beard conditioner, beard shampoo, an ESV Omega Thinline in Royal Purple, and mini statues of dead theologians to put on my bookshelf to make me look more cultured than I truly am.
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All good things, when left to adults, become busy, and this is especially true of religion. There is a hysteria about religion in America of having to endlessly improve or else…
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Tell me, do you have hope? I like to sift out the fools and the Christians from the rest of the populace in short order.
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