Christians & Osama: Irrational Exuberance & Morose Mourning
Sunday night I learned of the news of the death of Osama bin Laden and said “thank you Jesus.” Judging from a lot of the stuff floating around in the blogosphere, I should repent. But ever the contrarian, I must respectfully disagree. A great deal has been said about what a Christian reaction to this event ought to be. These reactions range from dancing in the streets to crying on our knees. There seems to be a couple of common questions that surface through all of this that I want to briefly address.
A Confession: Pastor Scholar vs. Suburban Chaplain
This past week I tried to steal away for a bit of study and writing. I must confess that it didn’t really happen due to church concerns that flooded my inbox. It brought to the surface an on-going passion and struggle of mine that has grown up into a conviction: that to be a better pastor, Jesus wants me to be a faithful scholar.
Summing Up Teams in 7 Years...
Every day when I pick up my Banshees from school, they know I'm going to ask, "So what did you learn today?" It's a fair enough question many of you are asking me upon completion of my dissertation. I hope to greatly expand my answer through a series of articles and a book in the coming year, but for now, let me simply post my "abstract" that sums up seven years of labor in 350 words or less:
It Takes a Team
After essentially being in school from age 5 to almost age 43, I have finally completed my last degree! It is quite a relief and quite a joy. I marvel at how God has taught me through this dissertation writing process, and I am excited to take what I've learned and hopefully have a chance to communicate it more broadly and helpfully through future writing projects. But today I wanted to share with you what I called the "most joyful" part of the dissertation writing project: the last pages I wrote- the Acknowledgments and Thanks section. There is no way I would have been able to complete this dissertation on teams without a team of folks who were essential in helping me pull this off. I wanted to share with you my thanks to my support team. There are many others that could be mentioned, but I went on record with these folks, and my love and gratitude to them all is heartfelt.
From Fear to Fullness
Below is an article from Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church that gives some further reflection on what we heard at Wellington Presbyterian Church this past Sunday from God’s Word. It is entitled, The Spiritual Importance of Giving. It is well worth prayerfully reading to help us move from fear to fulness by abandoning an ownership mentality for that of a steward...
B90x & the Kingdom of God
What an exciting summer at Wellington Presbyterian Church as 150+ began the Bible in 90 days experience with better than half completing it!
Disciples or Consumers: How to Choose a Church
There is precious little out there today on finding a church that reflects clear Biblical thinking coupled with courageous current engagement with today's culture. Thankfully, my good friend, Todd Murphy, has broken that mold with his outstanding article Choosing A Church: Gospel Principles for Finding a Healthy Gospel Community. Todd is being used of God to plant a church in Providence, RI called Sacred Journey Church- part of the Acts 29 network. Todd has graciously allowed me to reprint it here. I hope you will take the time to read it. It just could be life changing...
Celebrating the Finish of B90X!!!
Our church has been doing the Bible in 90 Days study program and it has been both challenging and seriously life-changing for many! We started with over 150 signed-up, and we believe that about 80 or so are still going and nearing the finish. Praise God! Over 90 days, they will have read the Bible from Genesis straight through to Revelation, and seen the Redemptive Kingdom of God jump off the page and into their lives like never before. I'll share in coming weeks a few of their stories, but for now I want to encourage all of our "B90x'ers"... (as we have taken to calling ourselves after the extreme workout program P90x- which a certain pastor has been known to be a little obsessed with...) ... to come out one last time this TUESDAY NIGHT to celebrate the finish or find encouragement to finish the race soon!
People still talk like this, but we don't preach like this anymore...
For some time now, I’ve been studying the practice of reading and preaching the Scriptures across the history of the church. Recently, I’ve been focusing on the Reformation. As part of that study, I came across this gem from John Calvin’s sermon on Deuteronomy 5:11 on the 3rd commandment: