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TOV
Scot McKnight and his daughter, Laura Barringer wrote the book, A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture that Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing. TOV is the Hebrew word for “Good.” This book has two parts. The first part describes abuses of power within several high-profile churches. The second part describes ways to
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My Hometown and AI
Markleysburg, PA 15459 is a small town located in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains in southwestern Pennsylvania. The town is known for its beautiful natural scenery, outdoor recreational opportunities, and friendly community. One of the main attractions in Markleysburg is the Youghiogheny River, which flows through the town and provides opportunities for fishing, kayaking,
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Scary Mary?
Growing up in the American Evangelical tradition, the Roman church and especially its theology on Mary has been a “scary” separating point. Over the past several years, I have been exploring the early history of the church and its various early divisions. Although the Reformation started an explosion of splits among the church, there were
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True (?) Christianity
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch, a Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford, is a historical survey of the development of Christianity from 1000 B.C.E to the 21st Century. It boasts 1100+ pages. I chose to listen to its unabridged audio book. If we think our
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Another Podcast
I recently added another podcast to my week. This one comes from Christianity Today. The Bulletin is a podcast for Christians seeking insights into the events, questions, and people that are shaping their world. Each episode will help Christians consider the intersection of faith, culture and spiritual formation.
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Advent
During this Advent season, I read Fleming Rutledge’s, Advent The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. The book is a collection of “Advent” homilies given by The Rev. Fleming Rutledge over a period from the 1980s to 2018. The publisher describes the book as follows. “Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint
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Bono
I have not followed U2’s music much. I have followed some of Bono’s activism and I respect him. Mike Cosper wrote a story in Christianity Today about Bono entitled, Defiant Joy Shaped by Grief, Buoyed by Faith, Bono Discusses Four Decades of Art and Activism. I would highly recommend this article. My respect for Bono
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Transaction or Allegiance
Throughout my life, I have been trained in many evangelistic methods: The common trait for all of these methods is they are transactional. One image that comes to my mind about a transactional evangelistic method is the idea of punching subway tickets. As an evangelist, I am to present you with two options of destinations.
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Voices I Hear
I spend a lot of hours jogging and use that time to listen to podcasts. Here are some of the podcasts to which I listen. The Holy Post: Join VeggieTales and What’s in the Bible? creator Phil Vischer and co-host Skye Jethani (author, speaker, pastor) for a fast-paced and often funny conversation about pop culture,
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The Ancient Is New
In my previous post called, Rock Stars and Concerts, I shared my longings for a new vision of gatherings of the people of God: I am discovering that my “new” vision is an “ancient” tradition going back to the first 100 years of the gatherings of the people of God. In the book, EARTH FILLED