Meet the Author Kyle Idleman is the teaching pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, which is the fifth largest church in America. After attending Ozark Christian College, he did an internship at Southeast Christian, planted Real Life Church in Southern California, and then returned to Southeast Christian in 2002. Idleman is the author and presenter of the award winning video curriculum H2O: A Journey of Faith and The Easter Experience. His first book, Read More …
Discipleship
How Americans Interpret the Bible (#0424)
According to the latest research by Gallup, within "most major U.S. subgroups, a plurality or majority holds the view that the Bible is the inspired word of God, rather than the actual word of God or a book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts." The chart below illustrates how views of the Bible have changed over time. So What? Currently, 3 in 10 Americans are biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God. Preference for the literal Read More …
The UCC, General Synod, and the Trinity (#0422)
Earlier this month, Terry Mattingly wrote a misguided and poorly researched article, "Got News? Adios to God the Father?" suggesting that the United Church of Christ was about to move away from being a fully Trinitarian denomination. This kind of journalism is not what one would expect from Mattingly who writes the nationally syndicated "On Religion" column for the Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C., and is director of the Washington Journalism Read More …
Review of The World’s Christians (#0421)
Meet the Author Douglas Jacobsen has taught at Messiah College in Grantham, PA since 1984. Currently he serves as Distinguished Professor of Church History and Theology. Jacobsen is a member of the United Church of Christ and serves on the Theological Commission of the UCC Penn Central Conference. Jacobsen is the author of several books including Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation (with Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, 2004) and The World's Read More …
Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World (#0417)
The world in which we now live is multi-religious. For the last five years, the World Council of Churches, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the World Evangelical Alliance have worked together to craft "Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct," which provides recommendations for "conduct on Christian witness around the world." The document recommends the authoring bodies: study the issues set out in this Read More …
How Much Patriotism is Too Much? (#0416)
Matthew Kelley, pastor of Arlington United Methodist Church in Nashville, TN, recently wrote an article about the difficult situation many pastors face on Independence Day weekend regarding just how much celebration of that national holiday is appropriate in worship. He relates an experience he had while serving as pastor of a church in a town with a military base. On a regular Lenten Sunday, not near any national holiday, a guest "sang Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an Read More …
You Might Be a Progressive Christian If . . . (#0415)
Bruce Reyes-Chow is a consultant who served as founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, until May of this year, and was the former moderator of the General Assembly of the 2.3 million member PCUSA. He recently wrote a piece about what Progressive Christianity is for Patheos' new Progressive Christian portal. In the article, he suggests: “You might be a progressive Christian if . . .” You can be described, but not defined . . . The Progressive Christian Read More …
The Unique Vocation of the United Church of Christ (#0414)
The United Church of Christ is currently in the midst of General Synod 28 (July 1-5) in Tampa, FL. Yesterday afternoon, I joined other members of local churches from across Florida as guests at a special community wide afternoon worship service. The Rev. Dr. Laurinda Hafner, Senior Pastor of Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ, preached a prophetic sermon marked by hope, which included these words: A year ago Bishop John Shelby Spong, the former Episcopal Bishop Read More …
Reuniting Old Friends (#0413)
This morning I am preaching at Naples United Church of Christ in Naples, FL. You can read the full text of my sermon, Reuniting Old Friends, here. For more information about the books referenced visit my reviews of Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood (2011) by Alan J. Roxburgh To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (2010) by James Davison Hunter Putting Away Childish Things: A Tale of Modern Faith Read More …
Never Complain About (#0411)
Jon Acuff, author of Stuff Christians Like (2010) and Quitter (2011), recently blogged about complaining. In that post he shared his past personal experiences of complaining about various aspects of church life, before learning how unhealthy his perspective had become. In contrast, he suggests a better way for members and active participants to respond to areas of church life they see as less than ideal: then I learned a pretty powerful truth about church volunteers that forever Read More …