The Gospel is Jesus

The Gospel is a topic I’ve addressed on a couple of occasions. But it is important enough to revisit. I have some new insights since I last wrote about it. Many of us are aware that “gospel” means good news. This is true, but there is more to it that just this. One specific and important use of the term “gospel” was to announce a new emperor of the Roman Empire. Messengers were sent (apostles) to proclaim (preach) the gospel (good news) of a new emperor. This was to be good news because the emperor was good (or at least claimed himself to be). He was also called lord, savior and the one who establishes peace. Because the emperor was good, the empire would be good too.

Sound familiar? Jesus is called these things. And it isn’t a mistake. Continue reading →

Respect Women, But…

OK, so I don’t think there should be any exceptions to respecting women, it’s just challenging to come up with a good title. I read “Seeing a Woman: A conversation between a father and son”, a blog post which has been circulating on the web recently. The basic thrust is “don’t objectify women”. I fully agree with that. In fact, that’s the same conclusion I came to. But I’ve had a realization of something else recently, something which causes me to want to add another angle to this discussion.

I grew up in a conservative evangelical culture. I was taught to respect women. I was taught how to treat women. Err… actually I was taught more about how not to treat women. I was taught to be good, and that being good essentially meant not Continue reading →

Miley Cyrus

Do the VMAs reflect worse on Miley or on us? I don’t follow celebrities but with the popularity of Hannah Montana, I’m guessing people wanted Miley to stay a cute little girl forever. So is what she did at least partially about forcing people to recognize her as an adult? (Because after her performance, people will find it difficult to think of her as a cute little girl any more.)

Book Giveaway!

Today I am pleased to have the opportunity to giveaway a copy of a new book to one of you, my readers. “Open” is a new book by Craig Gross. I gave a positive review to one of his previous books, “Pure Eyes”. He is probably best known as the founder of XXXchurch.com.

“Open”, which releases next Tuesday, sounds like an interesting book to me. From the publisher:

Get inspired and energized with this new, life-changing book, Open, by Craig Gross, available now wherever books and eBooks are sold.

Doesn’t it feel great when you find a book that really inspires you? Something that really gets you motivated to live and love better?

Author and speaker, Craig Gross, is helping men and women all over the country do just that. In his Continue reading →

Church vs. Scouts – East 91st St. Christian to Cut Ties

(Note: I attempt to be respectful here and recognize the point of view of those whom I disagree with. I would like for this to be constructive criticism, not malicious criticism. However I don’t know how I would say what I said in a nicer way so I don’t know if I succeeded.)

Yesterday afternoon it hit the local news that East 91st St. Christian Church, one of the largest churches in the Indianapolis area, plans to cut ties with the Boy Scout troops which it has hosted. E91 (as it’s sometimes abbreviated) is the congregation with which I am most associated.

When I heard this news via a friend, the first thing I did was to check sources in order to try and get the facts for my self. I found the story on the Indy Star’s website immediately, as it was the top featured story Continue reading →

My Blog Featured on Modesty Misunderstood

I am pleased to announce that my recent post on modesty is one of a dozen being featured on the website Modesty Misunderstood. It encourages me and makes me think that my writing may be doing some good in the world.

I spent a lot of time working on that post about “modesty”. In certain ways, it was a newer topic to me. I read many other blogs related to this subject, more than I referenced in my post. I also had to spend some time really examining myself, how I felt, and my responses to certain things. I wanted to be and tried to be as honest as possible about what I feel when seeing certain women in certain clothing. I’m not sure I got it completely right, but I believe I’m headed in the right direction. I feel that we as a Christian Continue reading →

How the Church is Failing Men

A couple of paragraphs from this article jumped out at me. I think the author really nails a major problem in how the church engages men. (I think the author may have done this without fully realizing it’s importance or full depth.)

Here’s what I’ve observed: a lot of men avoid men’s ministry because they are feeling less than okay with their personal lives. Many are embarrassed by the secrets they keep… Many tell me, “I’ll come to church once I get my act together.” They feel that if their lives aren’t perfect they should avoid church.

Our culture has drilled into us that we men have to have our act together. If we don’t, we’re not worthy of anyone’s love. Rather, we only deserve to be the brunt of jokes and ridicule. Continue reading →

Defending “the Truth”

There is significant division among Christians. The main dividing line today (as I see it) is in our beliefs in how we engage with non-Christians. How does God want us to engage with the world? What message does he want us to communicate through our actions and words? These are important questions because they are a fundamental part of being a community of Christ followers.

There are two main camps: love and truth. Conservatives and fundamentalist hold that standing up for the “truth” is the Christian’s most important task. This is the Christian’s witness. The church is the pillar of God’s “truth” in the world. Our “salt and light” is to declare the “truth” and to guide the world toward that “truth”.

A problem with this is that, in Continue reading →

On the “Depravity of Man(kind)”

As you know, it is written “In the beginning… God created them male and female… and it was very good.” God created us good. We have become broken and warped, and that is a tragedy. But we are fundamentally still valuable, there is still something good about our fundamental nature. And God loves us—God desires us—because he made us good. To say otherwise would be to say that God isn’t a very good God—if we say that he created something bad or if we say he loves something completely bad or with an entirely evil nature. Yes, we are broken and twisted; we’re confused and mistaken in many ways, and none of us live fully as we were designed to. We can’t fix ourselves by ourselves. We can’t fully live on our own. We need the life of God Continue reading →

Offensiveness of the Gospel

At times I’ll hear someone talk about how the gospel is offensive. In virtually every case, what the person has in mind is something along the lines of “non-Christians don’t like the ‘gospel’ because it confronts them with their sin.” Yet I want to suggest that this doesn’t match with what we find in the New Testament in most cases—or at least not in the way we think. I love this quote from Rachel Held Evans: “I’m beginning to wonder if what makes the Gospel offensive is not who it keeps out, but who it lets in.”

The gospel is offensive to the proud and the powerful, especially the religiously proud and powerful. If you look through the New Testament, the vast majority of persecution comes not from the pagan gentiles but rather from Continue reading →