Category: Practical Theology
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What Is There to Desire? A Reflection of My Motivations
Read more: What Is There to Desire? A Reflection of My MotivationsWe all have at least one desire in our life. We may desire something as tangible as a job, a degree, or community. It may be a desire for something lost, like a loved one who has passed. Many times, our desires are motivational drives that help us reach the next goal in life. Whether…
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DuPriest: “Christian Unity begins in Friendship”
Read more: DuPriest: “Christian Unity begins in Friendship”In 1985, drawing heavily both from Jeremy Taylor’s “Discourse on Friendship” and his own personal experience, the Episcopalian English professor, Travis DuPriest, argued that “Christian unity begins in friendship.” Why is this worth knowing? For one thing, it’s happening. For another, it is true to who we are, both as humans and as humans united…
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Domesticated Jesus and Highlighter Christianity
Read more: Domesticated Jesus and Highlighter ChristianityLesslie Newbigin tells an illuminating story about his time as a foreign missionary to India. In the Hindu Ramakrishna monastery, there is a gallery of portraits of the great religious teachers of humankind. Among them is a portrait of Jesus at which worship is offered every Christmas Day. Lest anyone mistake this worship for a…
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Do You Know Why You Go To Church?
Read more: Do You Know Why You Go To Church?What is the local church? Not physically so much, but what is the point? I asked this question for years ever since I started going consistently of my own volition in my senior year of high-school. I really only went because I had friends there, and occasionally I’d hear an interesting point about some passage…
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The Divisiveness of Jesus
Read more: The Divisiveness of Jesus“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” In our world and in our current political climate,…
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A Case for the Case for the Faith
Read more: A Case for the Case for the FaithAfter studying under Biola’s apologetics program and then becoming a theology major there, I have felt the tension between the two fields. Apologetics sounds like theology but really feels like philosophy, whereas theology typically doesn’t sound or feel like either. After wondering whether my years of apologetics training were actually fruitless attempts to create an…
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The Art of Listening
Read more: The Art of ListeningMy Favorite Proverb There is one particular biblical verse with which I have been infatuated for some time and which I have made a constant conscious commitment to follow. That verse goes a little something like this: “Ten cubits shall be the length of each board and one and a half cubits the width of…
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Confessions of a Groomzilla-to-Be
Read more: Confessions of a Groomzilla-to-BeOne of the things that I get to do to kick off Sunday services is to host the servant leaders prayer meeting. Generally, I try to put a relational spin to it, just so there isn’t this daunting vibe that’s hanging over the group right before they meet and encourage the arriving crowds. When we…
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On PhD Bookends: My Most Stressful Travel Stories (Part 2 of 2)
Read more: On PhD Bookends: My Most Stressful Travel Stories (Part 2 of 2)As part of my nostalgic reflections on the completion of my PhD, and the formal celebration of that a few weeks ago at my graduation, I’ve been thinking about the various trends and themes that characterized my time in Scotland. In particular, I was thinking about the bookends of my studies: how the beginning and…
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Simon, Matthew, and Communion: Where Are The People We Disagree With?
Read more: Simon, Matthew, and Communion: Where Are The People We Disagree With?At the table sat seven fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, and the other three apostles who at the very least were Jews. If you’re like me and grew up in 21st century United States, then that probably wasn’t the most eyebrow raising description. Except for the tax collectors, because I don’t think the majority…