Lent starts tomorrow. For most of my life, Lent hasn’t been a tradition that I participate in and I’ve gone back and forth as to whether or not Evangelicals should participate. I’ve come to the conclusion that participating in Lent can be a really great way to grow in Christ, though I don’t think it […]
My first experience of doing “evangelism” was when I was around fifteen years old and our youth group traveled to an inner city neighborhood. After some training, we broke up into teams and went door to door to “share our faith.” The catch, of course, was that we could “share our faith” after we’d completed […]
There’s an often-used rationale in the culture with respect to the Bible and marriage that goes something like this… “Hey, people in the Bible had many wives, and some of them even slept with servants and committed adultery – and these were supposedly men of God. So – how can you say the Bible teaches […]
ThinkTheology.org just finished our second blog forum featuring all three contributors in a series called Beer, Believers, and The Bible. Luke Geraty’s contribution is titled: Drinking to the Glory of God: Challenging Fundamentalists to Read All of the Bible. Kenny Burchard’s piece is called: You Should Ask Jesus if you can Drink Alcohol. Finally, Able Baker shares […]
Systematic Theology. Exegesis. Church History. Contextualization. Liturgy. Pneumatology. Hebrew and Greek. Pastoral counseling. These are all subjects that most pastors are either familiar with or have taken seminary courses on. Transitioning from seminary to pastoral ministry is pretty crazy. You go from writing huge papers on how postmodernism challenges the epistemological assumptions of one’s praxis […]
We can be considerate in inconsiderate ways. Considerate can be defined as “Careful not to cause inconvenience or hurt to others”. As the body of Christ we can actually think it we are being considerate not to inconvenience or hurt others but act on those thoughts in inconsiderate ways. When the heart of a church […]
I joyfully admit that I, as a Pastor, have gone through extended times of personal counseling, and on a couple of occasions, even marriage counseling. The result for me was incredibly positive on just about every level I can think of. I can remember several times, as I would make the one-hour drive from the […]
What’s the most biblical form of Church government?
The older I get, the more I study the Bible, and the longer I stay involved in church, the more I find myself amused by statements like, “Well, the most biblical form of church government is _____________ (insert the form you use at your church, or the one you think should be used there), and… […]
Jesus, Sex, and (gay) Marriage
There’s an often-used rationale in the culture with respect to the Bible and marriage that goes something like this… “Hey, people in the Bible had many wives, and some of them even slept with servants and committed adultery – and these were supposedly men of God. So – how can you say the Bible teaches […]
A Foundational Reason Behind Differing Interpretations of the Bible…
So I’ve started a class studying Evangelical and Pentecostal hermeneutics. Super enjoyable subject for me because I love the field of biblical interpretation. It’s one that is overlooked by quite a few people, so I’m always excited to learn more about it in the hopes of being able to help people. Recently I’ve come face […]
How helpful is the Cosmological Argument?
There are multiple approaches to the Cosmological Argument. Here is my best simple explanation of it: Something exists (e.g. a universe) There is not, therefore, nothing at all – therefore “Nothing” does not exist. Only “something” exists. Something cannot arise out of nothing There must be a cause for the “something” that exists God is […]
Would it help you if I told you “God is Immutable?”
“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Mal. 3:6, ESV) The first sermon I ever preached at the church we planted in September of 2001 was titled, “God Never Changes!” from Malachi 3:6. I chose that text because everything was changing in the world (September 11th […]
Imago Dei… In Functional Terms
Much has been made of the important theological idea of the Imago Dei (Latin for “image of God”). See: Gen. 1:26–27, Gen. 5:1–3, Gen. 9:6. There has been plenty of work discussing it in… Psychological terms (e.g., the capacity to think, to reason, and to be rational and even to be self-conscious), in… Relational terms (e.g., the capacity to love, […]
Since I’m a pastor, I’m deeply interested in being a part of and/or seeing God bring restoration and healing into people’s lives. It’s a joy to see God’s work in this area. If you have an interest in that, I want to recommend that you pick up Kevin Scott’s new book, ReCreatable: How God Heals the […]
Apostle of the Last Days, by C. Marvin Pate
Pauline studies has been arguably one of the main focuses of scholarly inquiry for hundreds of years, especially after the Enlightenment. In some circles, it is far and away more important than even Jesus studies (yikes!). Yet in other circles, the Pauline corpus is all but ignored, as it is “too doctrinal.” There is, of […]
Bringing Christ to Abused Women.
As a pastor I am overwhelmed by the struggles that women go through when it comes to abuse. I have asked God many times “What do I do?”. A pastor who goes through 6 or 7 years of theological training will not be prepared for the issues of abuse involved in the pastoral ministry. You […]
On the Molt’s Crucicentric Oversimplification
Years ago, when I first started reading the Molt, I started with his infamous The Crucified God. The following quote stood out: “If it is true that the inner criterion of whether or not Christian theology is Christian lies in the crucified Christ, we come back to Luther’s lapidary statement: Crux probat omnia. In Christianity the […]
When I was in seminary, I had to read Inspired Preaching: A Survey of Preaching Found in the New Testament, written by C. Richard Wells and A. Boyd Luter. It was actually the first graduate course I had that was related to homiletics but was way different than what I was expecting. I thought the book would be about how […]
Planning Lent w/ Logos Bible Software…
Lent starts tomorrow. For most of my life, Lent hasn’t been a tradition that I participate in and I’ve gone back and forth as to whether or not Evangelicals should participate. I’ve come to the conclusion that participating in Lent can be a really great way to grow in Christ, though I don’t think it […]
Last year I participated in a project release show with my buddy Michael Rambo. Here is one of the songs I was on:
An Interview w/ Marc Cortez on Blogging, Evangelicalism, and the Holy Spirit, pt. 3 of 3
If you’ve missed part 1 and part 2 of this interview, be sure to check those out. This is the third and final installment of my interview with Dr. Marc Cortez of Wheaton and Everyday Theology. Feel free to share your thoughts or questions in our comment section as we’d love to hear your thoughts […]
An Interview w/ Marc Cortez on Blogging, Evangelicalism, and the Holy Spirit, pt. 2 of 3
So I’m a few days behind on getting the rest of the interview with the infamous Marc Cortez up! I apologize. The weekend was busy and the -25 degree weather means my kids have been home and I’ve been enjoying my time with them! At any rate, last Friday I posted the first part of […]
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