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Speaking & the Church’s Calling
What is the mission of the church? The church must preach the word of God. It must enact its message in the administration of the sacraments. It must speak correctly the things of God for its time and...
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Ethics and Dogmatics
Ok, so I knew this would happen: rag Barth for saying that the church’s highest calling is dogmatics, bemoan how this enables evangelicals’ lack of engagement in substantive issues of praxis and… lo!...
View ArticlePeace of Christ Be With You
Yesterday I had more opportunity to reflect on “peace” within the context of the Christian story. Where I kept getting pushed was how “Being children of God,” as peacemakers, reflects the breadth of...
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Two Down, or…
Karl Barth, The Man-Crush Resumes. Dogmatics, Two Down In the final section of Doctrine of the Word of God, Barth touches on two dynamics of his work that make my heart sing, and clarifies one of the...
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Narrative Theology and Instruction Manuals
Did you ever have one of those experiences in youth group? You go to camp. It’s awesome. The speaker brings serious A game. He stands in front, holds open the Bible, and proclaims the importance of...
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Faithfulness Beyond Instruction
Yesterday’s post contrasted narrative theology with the “owners manual” view of the Bible. I know that once this conversation wanders too far people will lose patience. But here’s why I think it’s...
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Law, Gentiles, and Decalogue in the NT
I’ve been arguing over the past week that followers of Jesus don’t go to the Decalogue as the starting point for our ethics. We begin with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In particular, we...
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The Command of the Foot Washer
The debate about the place of the Law (or not) rages on in the comments of yesterday’s post, whilst my life is flooded with non-cyber-life that has me engaged elsewhere. But perhaps we might allow...
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The Law, the OT, and Christians
Over the past couple of weeks we have been poking around various issues of the relationship of Christians with the scriptures of Israel. It all started with some musings on why Christians don’t keep...
View ArticleFrom Faith to Faith
What makes us Christians? What defines us as a people? “I believe in God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only begotten son, our Lord…” That’s one way of doing...
View ArticleGuiltless Lawbreaking
One of my favorite sayings of Jesus comes in Matthew’s version of the grain-plucking episode. Jesus’s disciples are accused of doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath because they are tilling and...
View ArticleDoing What You Believe
Today’s post is inspired by the Theology Nerd Throwdown podcast. “The” Vs. “-al” At the end of a recent episode, Tripp and Bo got into one of their recurring fights. It’s the versus -al. What’s more...
View ArticleWhat Does It Mean to Be Human?
Deep thought for the day. The question of what it means to be human is fraught. It will never be simply a description. It will always shape our actions as well.
View Article“You’re the Christ!”“Shut up.”
O Goody, A Life Verse I am not a “life verse” kind of guy. If anyone were to ask me what my “life verse” was, I would not have been able to tell them. And then one day, I turned around and realized I...
View ArticleThree Questions for the Christian Sexuality Conversation
Every now and then some very important questions work their way to the surface in the midst of heated conversation. As I have been involved with Christian communities in conversations about sexuality...
View ArticleWhat I Am Affirming
This week I had a great conversation with a friend who has been working to create space in Evangelical churches for LGBTQ folks. In the course of the conversation he expressed his concerns over the...
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