Sermon: “There Goes the Neighborhood”
Since I don’t have children, I’ve never seen the actual birth of a baby. But I have had the blessing of seeing a child hours after having entered the world. Continue reading Sermon: “There Goes the Neighborhood”
Tag: mainline churches
Faith and Spreadsheets
I’ve been noticing something. A mainline church either moves out of its current location or closes. Soon there after, an evangelical church or an immigrant church buys up the property. Here’s the interesting thing: the mainline churches moves out because the community is no longer sustainable or the building is too much for a shrinking congregation. Long story short, the mainline community is low on finances. But the evangelical community or the group of immigrants that want to start a church are not swimming in money either. Most of these folk are working class. But somehow they are able to … Continue reading Faith and Spreadsheets
Repost: Church Planting; A Step of Faith
I’m not saying that pastor and other church leaders should not be paid. What I am saying is that in many cases, we aren’t so willing to take a step of faith, in planting churches and in the funding of church plants and planters. Continue reading Repost: Church Planting; A Step of Faith
Repost: I Miss the Old Mel White
The positive Mel White of old the “SpongeBob Squarepants of the gay community” is long gone. What’s left is a man that’s pretty pissed off at the church and when I say church, I mean the whole church. Continue reading Repost: I Miss the Old Mel White
Sunday Sermon: “Called. Gathered. Sent.”
From 2010. “Called. Gathered. Sent.” John 2:1-11, I Corinthians 12:1-11 January 17, 2010 First Christian Church Minneapolis, MN I’ve come to realize that as you reach a certain age, you start to look back at an earlier point in your life more and more. A friend of mine who turned 40 last year commented that he has basically stopped watching what is on television currently and with the wonders of Hulu.com, he has taken to watching television shows of the 70s and 80s. For my friend, he loves watching these shows because it is a wonderful memory of an … Continue reading Sunday Sermon: “Called. Gathered. Sent.”
What Does the Lord Require?
A few weeks back, I happened to be browsing the religious website Patheos and came accross a blog post by Greg Garrett called “God Commands Compassion, Not Evangelism.” The title fascinated me and the excerpt was even more interesting: “Christianity is not about praying in a certain way, or believing a certain thing, or making converts, or building a nice cabin at church camp.” The excerpt spells out what this post is about but here is a part: In my book The Other Jesus, I talk about how Christians are called to do more than praise God, although I believe … Continue reading What Does the Lord Require?
An Evangelical Looks at a Mainline Seminary
One of my favorite bloggers to read these days is Timothy Dalrymple. He’s a social conservative and I, being a gay pastor am…not. But even though we probably see things differently, his reasoning has always been solid and reminds me that social conservatives are real people and not simply caricatures. He has an interesting column today about his experiences at Princeton Seminary. He describes it as the one place where he felt he was an outsider. This is what he says in summing up his experiences: While my Mainline Protestant friends are not going to appreciate this, I cannot help … Continue reading An Evangelical Looks at a Mainline Seminary
Repost: “Progressive Christians” and Yours Truly
I’ve been noticing lately within Mainline Protestant circles, the rising use of the word “progressive” as a way to describe Christians who might have once used the term “mainline Protestant.” The biggest change to note is over at the religion megasite Patheos, which changed the name of one of their religion portals. What was once called “Mainline Protestant” is now called “Progressive Christian.” That change has brought about a discussion of the term and there have been some fairly good posts about name change.
That said, I’m also a tad bit wary of the term.
Continue reading “Repost: “Progressive Christians” and Yours Truly”
Repost: Notes from a Reluctant Liberal Christian
The following post is from January of this year. I’ve been wanting to write more on this topic and hope to do so in the near future. For now, there’s this essay. A few years ago, a dear friend of mine described me as an evangelical turned liberal Protestant. I remember blanching at that definition. Politically, I tend to lean more center-right/libertarian. Theologically, I’m pretty orthodox. But the fact is, I am a liberal Protestant these days. I’m ordained into a mainline Protestant denomination (Disciples of Christ) and I have standing in another denomination that in some cases is the … Continue reading Repost: Notes from a Reluctant Liberal Christian
Life, Death, Steve Jobs and the Future of the Mainline Church
Steve Job’s commencement address in 2005 at Stanford University seems to be everywhere right now. A whole host of media are sharing quotes from that speech. Most of them are sharing this portion where he talks about death. I guess I’ll join the throng and post that portion here: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention … Continue reading Life, Death, Steve Jobs and the Future of the Mainline Church
The Clockwork Pastor 