It Can’t Go Without Saying
Early this morning the local weather prognosticator provided the temperature pattern for the first 14 days of October. Generally we are dry and still longing for cooler temps. That it seemed summer was hanging on at the first of October was evident. Temperatures were well above normal. Like a correction in the market, the temps...
When God Pledged Allegiance?
Pastoral Prayer: Lord God, we often mistake our need for people to follow us or do things our way as confirmation that you are on our side. Like the disciples, we often think we have a monopoly. Today we will, as we do each week, remind ourselves that the measure of faithfulness is not in...
Disruptor(s) Needed: A Conversation with The Alan Noble
Business disruptors. Sports disruptors. How about Church disruptors? The story is told of a pastor who, while preaching, noticed his son chewing gum. He is said to have stopped the sermon and instructed his son, “Paul, go spit out your gum!” It Will Take More Than Gum More than 50 years later, gum is the...
Voices of Hope
Some of us grew up acquainted with choirs. Recently I saw the Voices of Hope Choir on American’s Got Talent. I could not help but think there was a metaphor that would help explicate something Paul was aiming for in what I think is his four-part harmony at work. Voices of Hope Ephesians 4:1-16 Pastoral...
Did You Know You Were Full?
Following the Lectionary means that sometimes you must include or reference passages that are not part of the given readings. It points to the value of the habit of reading around the Text under consideration. Related posts: Plumb Lines and Samaritans – Thoughts from the Edge Scandalous Meals – Weekly Video Reflections from Sunday –...
They Like Big Buts . . . You May Too
If you did not read carefully, you may have mistaken a conjunction for a noun. Spelling is key. Taking note of words and how they are used both spares of embarrassment and enlightens. Related posts: He Didn’t Know My Name: An Interview with Teer Hardy When In Romans: A Conversation with Beverly Gaventa and Jason...
Why Can’t We Be Friends? We Are!
Who listens to sermons? My young friends at Crackers & Grape Juice tell me that younger people listen to podcasts, and may read sermons, at a much higher clip than, well, people my age. Jason does call me an old man. The research they point to actually indicates that sermons matter to more than the...
If Your Pastor Did Not Preach On . . .
Have you felt the shame? Facebook and Twitter posts aplenty called out to churchgoers they should find another church if the pastor did not preach on the issue of immigration on Father’s Day a couple of weeks ago. Related posts: (Non) Voting As A Challenge to Power – One Non-vote Voter’s Reflection Protecting Privilege or,...
Left-Hand Power – Indiscriminate and Invasive Love
It was the mute button. I am sure of it. We thought it was unmuted. Alas, there was not recording. Related posts: Applauding Personal Success While Interested In Others Failure: An Interview with KrisAnne Swartley The Rapture Betrays the Incarnation: An Interview with Jeffrey C. Pugh Disabilities and The Church of the First: An Interview...
The Old SBC, the Age of Fear and the End of an Era?
Who knew there was another Littleton somewhere in the United States concerned about the current condition of the Southern Baptist Convention and its future? I didn’t. To say that we see things differently would not be distinctive enough. Related posts: The Great Divorce: The Church and the GOP Only Everyone Else (In the SBC) Should...
Only Everyone Else (In the SBC) Should Turn the Other Cheek
Not once when watching a cartoon bullfight did the animators expose the truth of the event. It wasn’t a fair fight. At least it wasn’t when I went to my first and only bullfight in Madrid in about 2003. Related posts: Ruled Out of Order or, A Pusillanimous SBC Part 1 The Great Divorce: The...
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A Quiverful of Lessons on Sex and Gender in the SBC and Beyond
Emily Hunter McGowin agrees with me. Then she calls upon her experience and education to list several ways where a much more dangerous ideology affect “American evangelical culture and the SBC in partiular.” Related posts: Whose History? Whose Independence? An Interview with Alan Cross The Old SBC, the Age of Fear and the End of...