xphiles
Sun Apr 24 04:46:23 EDT 2011
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Knowing God, Knowing Self - I was reading the recent (Winter '06) copy of Congregations, the magazine of the Alban Institute, and came across an article by Jeffrey D. Jones proposing metaphors & traits for future Christian leaders. Jones gives a good, evocative list: heart...

Ash Wednesday - Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Matthew 6, Psalm 51, Joel 2, 2 Corinthians 4. Ashes. Marking foreheads with the sign of the Cross. "Remember you are dust..." On the face of the woman who just buried her mother. The...

What We Profess, and What We Believe - Why is it so hard for USA Christians, particularly mainline Protestants, to do ministry around stewardship and evangelism? These two essential dimensions to deepening Christian life and thriving Christian community are often the two aspects of a congregation's ministry that...

Sometimes, It Just Doesn't Work - Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies: "It is said that Thales of Miletus, one of the seven wise men, first attempted to frame a system of natural philosophy... And he, looking toward heaven, alleging that he was carefully examining supernal...

There's Something in Your Faith That Needs An Enemy... - "Fundamentalist." It's a word that gets thrown around a lot. We know it has historical roots in those Christians who, resisting what they saw as the modernist-liberal distortion of Christianity, subcribed to certain non-negotiable "fundamentals" such as the bodily resurrection...

Road Trip! - What a cool weekend, spent with 200+ youth at the DE-MD Synod's senior high youth retreat, Road Trip. The band Daniel's Window was there. Holy buckets, do they rock. Their versions of "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand" and...

So You're a Part of the Religious Right? Wrong! - Labels like "conservative" and "liberal" annoy the heck out of me, even as I sometimes use them as convenient, yet awkward, shorthand. Let's face it; they have become nearly pointless. Think about a standard evangelical church. Doctrinally, they'll be "conservative."...

How We Hear the Word - Fellow Lutheran blogger Melanchthon made a great comment on an earlier post of mine. Here's a quick excerpt of his comment: I wonder if maybe we've turned the demand side of this into a caricature. As Lutherans, when we think...

There Is No One Righteous, Not Even Damon... - Further empirical proof for the doctrine of sin. Technorati tags: traitorous weasels rapacious greed the Evil Empire Johnny Damon turncoat Red Sox bitterness

Illuminating the Word - Earlier, I blogged a bit about "The Splendor of the Word," a NYPL special exhibition. That was just preliminary stuff. Here's what really fascinated me about the manuscripts: intertextuality. Or, "how we desperately need the help of pre-modern, long-dead medieval...

My Wife, the Cookie Nerd - Yes, Paige is a cookie nerd. And believe me, that's a very good thing. (Mmmmm.... chocolate chip cookies!) I'm a blessed guy. For proof of Paige's cookie-nerdiness, read this post on Come to the Table, her newly-launched food blog (especially...

Great Article - For some appreciation of the Apostle Thomas, as well as the great title, "Stop Channeling Marsha Brady," check out this article on the Next-Wave ezine.

Placing Ourselves in the Word? - If your church could provide Bibles to people with their own pictures inserted into the text, should they? Why do I ask? Well... Paige and I recently took a short trip up to New York City. One of the things...

Inter-Religious Emergers? - Some very interesting conversation going on in regards to this release from Emergent-US. Basically, emergent Christian leaders meeting with post-modern Jewish leaders in an attempt to talk about building sacred communities in our cultural context. You can read some of...

Pastor Hack - Juggling Liturgies - "Pastor, can you explain to me the meaning of life?" It's a joke one of our lay leaders has gotten in the habit of making. As he is taking on an increasing role in leading our worship life, he is...