Jin An, IT Director at Quest Church and owner of 8 Four Consulting, recently wrote a guest piece for the New Media Project. He begins his article with observations about what he knows of life in 2011, including "I can have church on my phone or laptop." So What? For years, many have taught that ministry modeled after Jesus should do as he did. One implication of that philosophy is that those who follow the way of Jesus should meet people where they are. An provides updated Read More …
Discipleship
American Faith at an All-Time High (#0532)
Joel Osteen is truly unique. He is Pastor of America's largest congregation; Preacher of happiness (above all else); and an Accidental popular author and preacher ("inherited" his dad's congregation and has no formal training - e.g. seminary). Cheryl Wetzstein's article in the Washington Post provides a look into his latest claim: "I see faith in America at an all-time high." So What? Of course, Osteen bases this lofty assertion on nothing more than his own incredibly Read More …
Pastors & Forced Termination (#0531)
Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, recently shared some observations on church staffing trends in a piece for the Christian Post. One of the six trends he discussed is the percentage of senior pastors who lose their jobs each year because of forced terminations. Over the last seven years, approximately 1.5% of senior pastors have been subject to forced termination each year. So What? Basic math indicates that over that 7 year period, 10.5% of senior Read More …
Halloween at the Hell House (#0529)
Brian Kirk's recent article, "Christian Haunted Houses: Scaring the 'Hell' Out of Teens?," caught my attention for several reasons, including: fear based evangelism targeting teens remains a tactic used by fundamentalist Christians hell houses or evangelistic productions staged to "convert" teens and "save" them from hell are an extreme form deployed each year at Halloween I have been to the Hell House at Trinity Church (Assemblies of God) in Cedar Hill, TX (the "original" upon which so Read More …
Bible-believing Means . . . (#0526)
Casey and Bob Baggott, executive minister and senior minister of the Community Church of Vero Beach, recently wrote an article for TCPalm about just what it means to call one's self "Bible-believing." In contrast to those who are Biblical literalists, the Baggotts propose: . . . none of us is capable, nor do we choose, to live out every literal dictate of the Bible. Instead, all faithful people must apply some principle by which we are capable of discerning the underlying Read More …
Christians Share This (#0525)
Harvey Cox, Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard, begins a chapter he contributed to The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from Each Tradition (1993, Arvind Sharma, ed.) by describing what "the proverbial visitor from Mars" would note if given the opportunity to travel to earth to observe Christians. After covering the dizzying diversity of the religious gatherings and the shared oddities (e.g. "the people would sometimes swallow small quantities Read More …
Are You Listening? (#0522)
The excuses for running through life without listening are many. There is so much noise in our world that it is easy to be surrounded by sound without ever hearing a word or becoming aware of the origin of a unique sound. It is rare for a person to slow down and heighten her or his awareness enough to discern the source and/or content of the sound(s), even when such is readily apparent. So What? There are days that I think silence is rare, but truly heard and well-processed sound Read More …
Your Unique Story (#0521)
Every person I have ever met who is seeking to follow the way of Jesus has a unique faith story -- an account of her or his life to date and how it has been impacted by one or more religious traditions. Some of these stories begin with or feature a moment of conversion (often an event on a specific day), but many more explain the transition to becoming a Christian as a long term process. Reflection on one's own journey to date is an important aspect of knowing one's own Read More …
Review of The King Jesus Gospel (#0520)
Meet the Author Scot McKnight is professor of religious studies at North Park University. He is a leading authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight has written over 20 books including The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others (read how this book has influenced me), Fasting (read my review), The Real Mary: Why Evangelicals Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (read my review), and One.Life: Read More …
More & More Multi-Generational Households (#0513)
The Pew Research Center recently released "Fighting Poverty in a Tougher Economy, Americans Move in with Their Relatives." The report considers how the Great Recession has influenced household composition. Over the last few years, more and more people have opted to live in multi-generational households as a means of handling economic pressures. A longer term look at household composition shows that the percentage of those living in multi-generational households declined Read More …