Like any and all Riffs, these are simply some of my thoughts inspired by other posts and discussions. Not a throw down, etc. This morning at evangel, Joe Carter voiced some of his frustration at the way the “law/Gospel” distinction sounds to his ears. I’ve wrestled with this myself on this site. Then, in the [...]
Misplaced, Taken For Granted and Ignored: My Strange Experiences With An Absent Gospel (Part 1)
18 Nov by
In a recent sermon, I said that I was deeply concerned about the understanding of the Gospel that I hear among adult Christians and especially preachers. I was not just making noise. With every passing year, I’m amazed that the level of Gospel understanding seems to be lower and lower among Christian adults. This isn’t [...]
Three Questions About Post-Evangelicalism
18 Nov by
1. Why did you start using the term “post-evangelical?” Aren’t you aware of how that term is perceived in the discernment blogosphere? This will seem hard to believe, but I simply wanted a way to say I was moving past evangelicalism to something else, but that something else wasn’t what would cause me to say [...]
Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles and the Matt Chandler Bobblehead
13 Nov by
Matt Chandler spoke at my alma mater this week (yes SBTS alumni, class of ’84 and more). You can watch the message here, but one of the Thinklings excerpted part of Chandler’s message and the words were very familiar. Chandler’s quoting Eugene Peterson, he who created the much vilified paraphrase “The Message” and who most [...]
Gospel Cowards
12 Nov by
A church-planting friend just wrote me about a conference he’s attended in one of our state Baptist conventions. Plant those churches, boys, was the rallying cry, but stay out of those pubs. Take the Gospel into the world, but stay out of anyplace that serves beer. That’s someone’s version of how the Gospel applies to [...]
Evangelical Ecumenism and A Jesus Shaped Guest List
6 Nov by
Point: evangelicalism contains within itself some almost irresistible itches from its fundamentalist DNA. From time to time, the urge to scratch is almost overwhelming. These itches would include: “Must say that Catholics are not Christians….” “Must say that all things ecumenical are bad unless it’s guys on our team writing books or putting on a [...]
Guess What Grandpa Bought From Wal-Mart?
30 Oct by
UPDATE: Support the monks of St. Meinrad, who make a great wooden casket/urn at a reasonable price. Will look much better under the tree Stand by America, Wal-Mart is selling caskets. And urns. I’m not joking. Any of you with a small funeral home in your community might want to consider two things: Just how [...]
When Bad People Need A Crutch
27 Oct by
I’ll never pass as an apologist for Douglas Wilson’s (or Mark Driscoll’s) views on gender. I was turned off to his rhetoric long ago. At the same time, I’m the kind of person who can not like his views on gender and very much like his debates with Chris Hitchens and his books on church [...]
Today’s Three Push-Button Words
26 Oct by
Despite what you may have read in the kinder, gentler corners of the blogosphere recently, you would all be surprised how un-contentious I am most of the time. In my real life, I regularly run from situations where I’m being pressed for my opinion. I much prefer print as the medium of debate. In real [...]
Thoughts On A day of Catholic Radio
MOD: Thank you to all who contributed comments on this post. Obviously we are not going to resolve all of our questions about church history, Roman Catholicism, the Reformation, and Eastern Orthodoxy in a single blog post about a day of listening to Catholic media. The journey will continue, but for now, comments on this [...]