Sermon Text: Matthew 5:13-16 Sermon Excerpt Over the last few years, I have heard one man preach more than any other. Ron Patterson, Senior Minister of Naples United Church of Christ, has a saying that I have come to appreciate. While he uses many variations, it usually sounds something like this: “You may be the only Jesus some people ever see.” Let me repeat that before we begin unpacking what it means . . . “You may be the only Jesus some people ever see.” At its Read More …
UnChristian
Review of You Lost Me (#0561)
Meet the Author David Kinnaman is best known as the co-author of the bestselling book UnChristian: What a New Generation Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters (2007). Since joining the Barna Group in 1995, the 37 year old Kinnaman has designed and analyzed nearly 500 projects and supervised more than 350,000 interviews for client projects. Currently, he serves as president and majority owner. Book Basics UnChristian (2007) is an incredibly insightful, timely, and well Read More …
Toward A Christian Response to the Death of Osama bin Laden (#0354)
Osama bin Laden’s death has been a lead news story for the last several days. Over the course of the week I have read a number of tweets, Facebook status messages, and blog posts commenting on the matter from a Christian perspective. These reflections represent a wide range of theological beliefs, including a number that place United States citizenship above one’s place in the reign of God and sound quite unChristian. In contrast, I offer the words of leaders from two of the Read More …
Research Suggests that Evangelical Christians are UnChristian (#0298)
"Why Evangelicals Hate Jesus" is the title of a recent Huffington Post article, which seeks to explain the findings of research conducted by the Pew Research Center. The post was written by two professors: Phil Zuckerman (associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College) and Dan Cady (assistant professor of history at California State - Fresno). They suggest the research confirms: what social scientists have known for a long time: White Evangelical Christians are the Read More …
Review of The Next Christians (#0200)
Gabe Lyons. The Next Christians: How a New Generation is Restoring the Faith. Doubleday: 2010. ISBN: 9780385529846. Meet the Author Gabe Lyons is the founder of Q, which serves to educate Christians on their historic responsibility to renew culture. Q, an outgrowth of the now defunct Fermi Project he co-founded with his wife, began offering national gatherings in 2007 and launched Qideads.org in 2009. Previously, Lyons served on the team that co-founded Catalyst, which Read More …