I was about twelve when I confessed Christ as Lord. I understood at least something of what that meant, and would for a lifetime learn more of its implications. This confession I made privately. I remember, it was a summer night and I was looking out the window near my top bunk bed. It is not a...
It has been good to see some of our friends returning to church. During the whole Covid ordeal there has been a lot of discussion about “doing church” without “going to church.” Frankly, those are both strange phrases. Biblically speaking, “church” is what we...
So Easter comes to us by way of tradition. There is no mention in the Bible of Easter or of lent. Having said that, some kind of yearly acknowledgement of the resurrection is an ancient church tradition. From what we can tell, observance was varied and different tradition streams developed quite...
Most people think that the work of Charles Darwin merely led the church to reconsider its beliefs about creation and the first three chapters of Genesis. In fact, much more was going on than that. The way we look at history had already been challenged by the German Idealism of the 19th century...
I enjoyed Sunday’s study in Psalm 66. If you were with us on Sunday you remember that the writer calls for the earth and all its inhabitants to praise God. It is appropriate to do so because of who he is and because of his “awe-inspiring works” (3, 5). Of...
This is an interesting time. I grew up in a Fundamentalist church. Without going into a lot of historical detail, Fundamentalists were Bible believing evangelicals who were almost militant in their commitment to fight against a corrupt culture. They were driven to identify the evils of their...
I grew up an independent Baptist. Among the many things that this might mean is that my church experience was never “high church.” There was little in the way of tradition, formality, and certainly no liturgy. I used to joke and say that our only “high church” experience...
Thinking about church in changing times. A lot has been said in recent years about the changing spiritual culture in the US and what it means to church life. I am not in a position to add much to the massive amount of writing that has accumulated on the subject, other than to offer my own...
There are a number of ways to distinguish contemporary American culture. One can do so economically or in terms of its entertainment focus. It is certainly possible to discuss our culture from a political perspective, or even from the point of view of current trends in American philosophy. But...
You’ve heard the phrase before, because it seems to capture well how much of journalism works: “if it bleeds, it leads.” The fact is, bleeding things tend to be pretty newsworthy. Potholes in the streets and traffic violations are hardly enough to capture the attention of the...