I have spent the better part of the last decade studying Jonathan Edwards’s theology and spirituality. Edwards has been such a close companion over the past several years that I find myself less and less surprised by him. But that is not always the case. He is such a broad and deep thinker that there […]
Here is a short excerpt from Formed for the Glory of God: Learning from the Spiritual Practices of Jonathan Edwards (IVP, 2013), 120-122. Click here for the publisher page. Edwards on Meditation Edwards told his church to set their minds on things of a divine nature and to turn the eye of their minds toward […]
According to my previous post, my developing conviction about young adults and the church is that the church is not presenting youth with a compelling vision for the Christian life. In other words, the church isn’t failing because a lack of any discrete “young adult ministry,” its failure is more systemic than anything else. Leaving […]
I had an extended conversation today regarding the ever-troubling topic of young adults and the apparent dissonance between the church and the cliff its young adults seem to walk off annually. This conversation seems to have consumed large parts of my ministry in the church, beginning as a fresh 19 year old intern hearing the […]
This weekend I was on a mini-vacation (about which I will be posting later), and before we put our boys to sleep one night The Sandlot came on, which of course was to my great pleasure. It was one of many, Lord willing, initiatory rites my boys will experience with me on their way to […]
Mr. Strickland: I noticed your band is on the roster for the dance auditions after school today. Why even bother, McFly? You don’t have a chance. You’re too much like your old man. No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley!Marty McFly: Yeah, well, history is gonna change. Back to the Future asked […]
“I know God has forgiven me but I just can’t forgive myself.” I have sat in my office or at a coffee shop with many a soul whose despondency over their oppressive guilt was literally eating at them from the inside. The above statement or something similar to it has been, from out their condition, […]
The 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green depicts a chilling dystopian future in which humans, amongst other things, consume a product called soylent green. This small green wafer marketed as a “high energy” product is actually the processed remains of humans. Humans consuming other humans as what we might call “human resources.” It has found […]
I suppose I have been trying to tackle some of the evangelical jargon that has actually enslaved us to an anemic spirituality (most recently “it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship”). Being raised in and inculcated with these phrases I only know them as an insider. I didn’t always think these phrases were odd except […]
“I see men, but they look like trees, walking.” Mark 8:24 The evangelical church seems to waffle between some form of antinomianism (a rejection of God’s law as no longer binding for spiritual growth) and its equal opposite moralism (an affirmation of God’s law as the solution to spiritual growth). We struggle profoundly with knowing […]