Harold Camping has been in the news the last several days thanks to his prediction (and his organization's costly campaign to alert the world) that the rapture will occur today at 6:00 p.m. in all time zones. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Manya A. Brachear explains: Don't mark your calendars yet. Reports that the world will end Saturday are greatly exaggerated, according to many evangelical Christian scholars. For starters, California radio host Harold Camping, 89, president Read More …
Discipleship
New Ways of Being Church (#0365)
One of many signs of the increasing awareness of the importance of technology for ministry was The Clergy Journal's April/May 2011 edition's theme: Technology and Community: Building Community. Keith Howard, past executive director of the Emerging Spirit initiative of the United Church of Canada, and Aaron McCarroll Gallegos, executive producer of wondercafe.ca, contributed an article entitled "Technology and Community Building," which includes these challenging words: Social media Read More …
It’s Not About . . . (#0364)
Carlos Whittaker describes himself as "an artist, pastor, thinker, experience architect, and Web 2.0 junkie." After serving in local church ministry as Pastor of Worship and Creative Arts at Sandals Church in Riverside California and as Director of Service Programming at Buckhead Church (a campus of North Point Community Church), he signed with Integrity Music and launched a full-time career in the recording industry. Recently he blogged about what the life of faith is not and Read More …
Review of Naked Spirituality (#0363)
Meet the Author Brian McLaren served in pastoral ministry for twenty years as the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church. In 2006, he stepped down from that role to devote his time to writing and speaking. McLaren has written numerous books, including Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words (2011), Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices (2010), A New Kind of Christianity (2010), and Everything Must Change: When the World's Read More …
5 Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion (#0362)
Unitarian Universalist minister James Luther Adams proposed five smooth stones of liberal religion in an essay entitled "Guiding Principles for a Free Faith," which was published in On Being Human Religiously: Selected Essays in Religion and Society (Max Stackhouse, ed. Beacon Press, 1976, pp. 12—20). R. Lloyd Ryan summarizes JLA's smooth stones: Revelation is continuous. Relationships ought to rest on mutual and free consent. We need to work together for just Read More …
Full LGBT Equality in the Church (#0360)
Believe Out Loud is a project of Intersections International that is committed to being a" trans-denominational movement that promotes LGBT-inclusion in the Christian church." Recently they launched a campaign to get one million Christians to sign on in support of "full LGBT equality in the church." Sojourners, led by Jim Wallis, rejected their new 83 second ad (watch below) depicting lesbian moms and their son entering a new church and receiving a welcome from the Read More …
Effective Worship Services? (#0358)
John Ortberg is the Senior Pastor of the 4,000 member Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and the author of multiple books on spiritual formation. In the Spring 2011 edition of Leadership Journal, he wrote an article entitled "What Does God Think of Entertainment," in which he set forth his view on what a successful worship service looks like: The primary criteria for the effectiveness of a church service is not "holding people's attention." It's not compliments after the service Read More …
Presbyterians Provide Free Qur’ans (#0357)
Over the last few months, the media has placed one "Christian pastor" in the spotlight over and over again as he planned to burn the Qur'an and more recently to hold an armed protest outside of a mosque. In stark contrast to his actions are those of many Christians who are motivated by love rather than hate. Kristen Moulton's recent article in the The Salt Lake Tribune recognizes this by placing the actions of Terry Jones alongside those of the 458 member Wasatch Presbyterian Church Read More …
The Women Preached it First (#0356)
The United Church of Christ‘s Still Speaking Campaign is the most well-known marketing campaign undertaken by a mainline denomination in recent years. The campaign started in 2004 with television ads, which can be viewed here. In April 2010, the campaign moved online with an ad designed to spread via social media called The Language of God (read my thoughts) and continued with Uniquely UCC (read my thoughts). For Easter, the new ad, The Women Read More …
Review of Speaking Christian (#0355)
Meet the Author Marcus Borg is Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. He is also professor emeritus in the philosophy department at Oregon State University, where he was the Hundere Chair in Religion until his retirement in 2007. Borg is among the most widely known and influential voices in progressive Christianity. He is best known for his work as a fellow in the Jesus Seminar, his biblical scholarship, and as the author Read More …