In the light of John Piper’s recent assertion that “God gave Christianity a masculine feel,” our friend Rachel Held Evans challenged men to respond by sending her posts that celebrate women and their full equality and partnership in the Church. Rachel published the results today, in “God Is Not Ashamed” – Our Brothers Speak Out”. [...]
Dealing with the Wayward
7 Feb by
Dealing with the Wayward Damaris Zehner Recently on iMonk we discussed how a church responded to a young man who confessed to a sin. We tossed comments back and forth referring to Matthew 18 and both the Gospel and the letters of John. Most of us seemed to be in agreement that the church’s handling [...]
Ambiguity in Scripture
7 Feb by
The Bible, through a Scientist’s Eyes, part four Testing Scripture: A Scientist Explores the Bible by John Polkinghorne • • • To my ears, one of the most bizarre and troubling passages in the Hebrew Bible describes the “bitter water” ritual (Numbers 5:11-31). This ceremony was to be used when a man suspected his pregnant [...]
The Event that Formed Our Family
3 Feb by
God’s Marvelous, Massive, Messy House Part 2: The Event that Formed Our Family Throughout 2012, we are running a series of posts on Diarmaid MacCulloch’s marvelous, massive, and messy history of the faith, Christianity. The nature of his book reflects the nature of our household. We are a motley bunch and always have been. Nevertheless, [...]
D.A. Carson on Genesis 1-2 and Science
1 Feb by
One of the teachers I respect most in the Church is Dr. D.A. Carson from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Don was one of my primary NT professors when I was in seminary and he spoke at my installation service when I became pastor of a church in Waukegan, IL. One of my most satisfying moments [...]
MPT Posts on Church Discipline — and I Suggest a Better Way
25 Jan by
NOTE: This post is not about a certain well-known pastor, even though it involves the church he leads. In the discussion that follows, I am not interested in having us talk about this pastor personally. So don’t. Please keep the conversation on the subject of church discipline itself, more broadly. We focus on these articles [...]
The Best Responses to the Driscolls and Youngs
14 Jan by
By far, the most thoughtful and thorough response to all the “sex” hubbub raised by the Driscolls and Youngs and their recent books and publicity stunts comes from Matthew Lee Anderson. I became aware of his analysis when I read the article, “The Trouble with Ed Young’s Rooftop Sexperiment,” at Christianity Today. I encourage you [...]
Some Thoughts Heard around the Web on…the Bible
3 Jan by
Loving the Bible for what it is, not what I want it to be January 2, 2012, by Rachel Held Evans My relationship with the Bible has been a lot like that of a daughter to her parents. I’ve been through the happy, childlike dependency stage, the one where I believed the Bible was impenetrable, [...]
Frederick Buechner: “Christmas Itself Is by Grace”
28 Dec by
Some writers take my breath away. Whenever I read Frederick Buechner, I can’t stop gasping for air. Buechner is simply one of our best American authors. You can see his biography HERE, at the Buechner Institute’s website. Born in 1926, young Frederick experienced a tragic and profoundly formative event when his father committed suicide. After [...]
David Lose on “The Absurdity of Christmas”
27 Dec by
David Lose holds The Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Biblical Preaching. David led the creative team that developed Working Preacher, one of my favorite resources on the Internet. There he writes a weekly column on the upcoming lectionary texts. He [...]
