A Church of Men and A Church of Women?

There are not two churches, the church of men and the church of women, just as there are not Jew and Gentile, slave and free, etc. Of course we have made countless divisions among ourselves. However these are merely illusions. I don’t mean that they don’t exist or don’t matter. What I mean is that Christ has only one body. We he looks, he sees only one church. Sure, he knows all about our divisions and denominations. Yet to Him there is only one church which is comprised of those who are following him through the Spirit.

For whatever reason, we seem to like to divide. We have youth group, children’s church, a singles group, young single adults, divorcees, young married couples, older married couples, etc., etc. It often seems that one Continue reading →

What Day Was Jesus Crucified?

(Note: this topic is interesting but not a matter of great significance.) A year or two ago I was introduced to the idea that Jesus may not have been crucified on Friday as is traditionally held. Tradition places the last supper on Thursday night, which is the beginning of the 15th of the month. (Remember that for Jews the next day began at sundown.) The crucifixion therefore took place on Friday the 15th of the month. I’ve done some research on the subject out of curiosity. I’m not an expert, but this is what I’ve learned. There are primarily three date markers in the gospels:

The synoptic gospels all state that Jesus was crucified on the “day of preparation”. John says the crucifixion took place on the “day of preparation for Continue reading →

Is God Pleased With You?: How to Live the Christian Life

Frank Viola recently shared an audio recording of him teaching on Romans 7 and 8. I thought it was so good that I listened to it twice, which is saying something coming from me. I liked it so much that I wrote down some of what he said and want to share it here:

You have been told for so long by preachers, and christian radio, and christian TV and books, that “God loves you… but… but… God loves you but…” And many of you here, your relationship with the Lord, if you peel away the layers of the onion, is based on “Am I doing enough to make him happy? Is He really pleased with me?”. And I’ll tell you what, virtually every sermon you hear reinforces that. I would say that 95% of the ministry we hear in sermons, books, conferences, Continue reading →

Near or Far?

…What I realize now as I look back on it is that I also felt very distant from our great and Holy God. It was as though I felt like He could not be defiled by my sinful, fallen, human hands. So, while I praised Him for His grace in electing and saving me, I was still left with a sense of great distance between He and I…

…It seemed as though all these speakers intended to do was display the magnificence of Christ and lead us to embrace our unity with Him. To yearn for Him, search for Him, and feast on Him as never before.

This reconciliation between myself and Christ was much more than just sensing a closeness to Him. I realized the powerful truth that Christ is IN me and I am IN Him. Words cannot express…

How Much Do We Choose Our Emotions? Do We Allow People to Hurt?

I’m not sure but I’m thinking I might be afraid to be open when I’m upset about something because I don’t want people to try to “fix me”. I don’t want that because it says “there’s something wrong with you”. Yes, there might be something wrong in the sense that I’m not happy, but I’m looking for people to acknowledge that and understand and accept. I mean, it’s one thing if someone is upset that the new phone they ordered is going to take a day longer to arrive than they expected. That’s arguably not that important. On the other hand, it’s generally acceptable to be upset if a close friend or family member dies. The thing is, I think there are other things which fall into the latter category—things which really do make a difference—yet Continue reading →

The Central Core Foundation: Christ’s Life

As you may be aware, I follow a number of other church leaders. I have read many of their books and follow those who blog online (see my links). I have found most of what each are doing to be complimentary, overlapping, and quite similar in many regards. I certainly believe this gives some weight to their words.

Since being exposed to the ideas of “organic” or “simple” church a few years ago, I have been trying to process and synthesize all of the ideas from these various people and groups. While there are many similarities, there are some subtle differences as well (or at least they look subtle on the surface). I started sensing a tension between a couple of schools of thought recently. At first I thought this was about the “and”: the Continue reading →

Scot McKnight, N.T. Wright Interviews with Frank Viola

I don’t normally share links on my blog unless specifically writing about the content myself. This is mainly because it takes much more effort than it does to share in other ways. I use Google reader, which used to allow sharing of blog posts to a feed. (Unfortunately, Google removed this option, though previously shared items are still viewable.) Now I primarily share links on Facebook. In any case, I have chosen to participate in a “promote one another” day. So take a moment to check out these insightful interviews with two leading authors (and subscribe to Frank’s blog—it’s excellent):

Scot McKnight Interview: “The King Jesus Gospel” & McKnight Responds to Critics

N.T. Wright Interview: “Simply Jesus” & Wright Continue reading →

Links

I significantly overhauled my links page. It’s now easy to see which blogs are my favorites. I recommend you check out these blogs because they consistently contain good content.

Christian Terminology More Appealing to Women?

David Murrow recently posted an excerpt from his book, “Why Men Hate Going to Church”. There are a couple of interesting thoughts in this article, and I’m curious to know what you think about them.

First off, Murrow states that the most common description of Christianity evangelicals use is the phrase, “personal relationship with Jesus Christ”. However he states that “it frames the gospel in terms of a woman’s deepest desire—a personal relationship with a man who loves her unconditionally. It’s imagery that delights women—and baffles men.”

What do you think? I personally have shied away from using this phrase but for other reasons. I realized long ago that the phrase “personal relationship with Christ” never actually appears Continue reading →

Bible as a Playbook Metaphor

There are some Christians so focused on the Bible that they seem to discount everything else. They want sermons which focus on studying passages of scripture and small groups or Sunday school classes which are Bible studies. The Bible does set the foundation for knowing Christ. I have read and studied the Bible extensively myself. However, as I’ve explained before, I believe Christianity is as much or more about action as it is about knowledge.

Every football team has a playbook. It explains each person’s responsibilities for various different plays. The players must study and learn these plays so that they know exactly what to do when a specific play is called during the game. I’d like to make the suggestion that the Bible, in a Continue reading →