Latest Posts
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The Case for House Church
Read more: The Case for House ChurchI am sure that to many, the title of this article made you roll your eyes a little bit. You know that the Bible talks about churches meeting in houses but… I mean, that can’t possibly apply to our cultural setting today. You also may have met some rather bizarre individuals who were house church…
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Let Them Drink Coke (Part 2)
Read more: Let Them Drink Coke (Part 2)Mmmmm…food. We probably ate a little too much of it this week. Feasting has a way of urging us to throw gustatory caution to the wind, doesn’t it? Whatever we ate this week, we all have this in common: we need to eat food in order to survive. The type and quantity of food we…
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Batkid and the People of God
Read more: Batkid and the People of GodI am lucky to live in the Bay Area. And never have I felt luckier than the day Batkid came to town (if you know nothing of Batkid, please read this) When the story leaked that the Make-A-Wish Foundation planned to transform San Francisco into Gotham City so that Miles, a 5 year old who…
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Let Us Keep The Feast: A Book Recommendation
Read more: Let Us Keep The Feast: A Book RecommendationIt all started with Chaim Potok—the 20th century Jewish novelist who wrote mainly about Orthodox and Hasidic Jews living in New York City, and is famous for such books as The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev. I discovered his novels in college, and, after reading a few of them, I came to a…
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Attitude Check
Read more: Attitude CheckI often take many things for granted. In fact, this past week, as I’ve been sick on my couch with the not-so-pleasant cough/cold/congestion combination that’s been going around, I’ve complained about many things. Being physically sick heightens my negativity, as I become critical of everything around me and in me. According to the four humours…
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Fiction: historical Viking fantasy anyone?
Read more: Fiction: historical Viking fantasy anyone?I love discovering a new author that captures my intellect and imagination at the same time. Lars Walker’s book, “The Year of the Warrior,” did that for me. The book is brutal, real, historically rich, occassionally laugh-out-loud funny, and at times so painfully dark it reads like a head to head battle with the authentic…
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UNBIBLICAL!?
Read more: UNBIBLICAL!?Those of you who clicked this post after seeing the picture might think it’s a blog about the NFL’s quarterback protection policies, and my take on a biblical perspective on the matter. Well, not really. If you are curious about my opinion, I’ll summarize it with this: I can see the concern to protect players…
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A Bridge Too Short?
Read more: A Bridge Too Short?Earlier this week, my fellow blogger Calvin Sodestrom penned an excellent piece on so called “church marketing.” While I agreed with most everything that Calvin said, I also wanted to press his point further and help us to reconsider how we go about “doing church.” Calvin’s insights were useful but as long as we are…
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SBLAAR: Craft Beer Reception
Read more: SBLAAR: Craft Beer ReceptionIf you’re in Baltimore already or coming later this week for the annual meetings of SBL, AAR, IBR, ETS, and all of the other annual conferences, do come along to a craft beer reception that I am co-organizing with my colleague and office-mate, Christopher Brewer (isn’t that name just perfect?! The Christ-bearing Beer-maker). The reception…
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Church Marketing 101
Read more: Church Marketing 101I ought to show my cards right from the get go. I’m really not that big of a fan of church marketing. While I realize that “marketing” (though I’d rather use a different term) is, in some sense, inevitable if we want to be congregations that engage our communities, I generally don’t like the conclusions…