Category: Practical Theology
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Bingo: God on the Move at Hume Lake
Read more: Bingo: God on the Move at Hume LakeLast year I got to experience Hume Lake for the first time as a counselor. I was blown away at their focus on Jesus and emphasis on connecting students back to the local Church. You can read about my experience here. This post is dedicated to sharing what Jesus did in the lives of my…
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How to Write a Research Paper in Five Days
Read more: How to Write a Research Paper in Five DaysSystems are great. You should use them for, like, everything. I just realized this summer that there’s a pretty straightforward system for writing a research paper over five days. Identify a category. I like Athanasius’ On the Incarnation, but I had no idea what to write about it. So I picked it up and read the first twenty…
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Living with Clutter
Read more: Living with ClutterCollecting Clutter I have moved a lot in my life. I do not recall some of my initial moving around when I was young. I was born in Iowa and we moved to Virginia shortly thereafter. Within a few years, when I was around four years old, we moved to California. I lived in the…
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On PhD Bookends: My Most Stressful Travel Stories (Part 1 of 2)
Read more: On PhD Bookends: My Most Stressful Travel Stories (Part 1 of 2)Two weeks ago today I graduated with my PhD from the University of St Andrews. Being back in St Andrews was a wonderful experience. It was great to be able to show my parents around for the first time. As I was retracing my steps and hitting up all of my favorite places around town…
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On Travel, the Limits of Language and Being Known
Read more: On Travel, the Limits of Language and Being KnownThis summer for me has been one of language learning and travel to foreign countries — an experience that continues to bring home for me the difficulties involved with human communication. It is hard enough to complete a shopping transaction in a foreign language let alone present a lecture or tell someone how I am…
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Shepherding the Lost
Read more: Shepherding the LostFor a flock of sheep, the shepherd is an important figure. Without a leader, the sheep would live aimlessly, only doing what is necessary for survival. This is a wonderful reflection of church structure and the necessity for not just a strong leader; but more importantly, an even greater Shepherd to guide all processes. I…
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God’s Faithfulness in the Midst of Our Faithless Felonies
Read more: God’s Faithfulness in the Midst of Our Faithless Felonies1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. What’s one defining characteristic the whole world has in common? We seem to have a rather unhealthy appetite for sinning in many awful, albeit often creative, ways. Maybe it was lying to…
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All We Have is Death and Hope
Read more: All We Have is Death and HopeThis past week has been tough. Orlando, Paris, Tel Aviv, and many others have been a constant source of tears, heartache and mourning for the global community I know for me, death has hit home in a different way. Last week, my Grandma passed away at 89 years old. She was an amazing woman who was…
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So you’re smart. Are you brilliant?
Read more: So you’re smart. Are you brilliant?“Jack, you’ve got a really sharp mind.” My boss at the Denver Institute for Faith and Work loves our rapid-fire, intricate theological conversations.; they’re so fun. I smiled as I remembered quoting Von Balthasar and Lewis over Costco food court turkey sandwiches to critique modern epistemologies. But that compliment this morning had been preceded with by…
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I Am Not Worthy of God’s Love (or so I think)
Read more: I Am Not Worthy of God’s Love (or so I think)Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. The story of the prodigal son has inspired hope in countless individuals as they have processed their religious experience. Most sermons have incorporated the passage to be primarily directed at Non-Christians, the lost, the unsaved. Some…