I’ve been a Christian and student of church history long enough to know that Christianity is often peppered with jealousy and colored by strife. My theological journey has placed me in or close to a variety of evangelical theological camps, and my travels exposed me to Thai, Shan, Mexican, American, Russian, Turkish christianities, to name a few. Unfortunatley, no matter where Christianity exits, there is a tendency among camps Charismatic, Conservative, socialist, doctrinalist, Arminian, Open Theist, Calvinist, Dispensationalist, Covenantal and so on to disdain one another. The strife that is stirred up in the name of Christ is often quite Christless.
Blogging Advice to Pastors
What do you think of Cory Miller’s Advice?
Here are 10 ways I think pastors and their churches can use blogs to reach out, reach in, position themselves in the community, offer biblical resources, and more:
1. Blog your city – Talk about upcoming city-wide events, upcoming service projects of your church, share photos of the city, neighborhoods. Use your blog to love on your city and her people. Click here for an example.
2. Blog the news, pop culture, issues – Weigh in on these things with a biblical perspective (and, a loving one). Click here for an example.
3. Blog on money and personal finance – That’s what this “anonymous” guy does on his blogs. He blogs on something dear to his heart – money – and his company – Moose Tracks Ice Cream – gets great publicity.
4. Blog on marriage, family, and parenting – Give tips, offer links to relevant news and reports, and, of course, your sermon series on those topics.
Resurgence Conference
Resurgence Conference 2007 Where the Hand of God Meets the Hands of Men Dr. Bruce Ware
In the shifting sands of churches today the doctrine of God has taken the back burner to more cultural hot buttons. This should alarm the church, as many of the debated issues center on the doctrine of God. If you trace back one of the more prevalent disagreements of today you begin to realize it started with the shaky doctrine of God being held by that group. Resurgence is glad to bring in Dr. Bruce Ware from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to Mars Hill Church’s Ballard Campus. Dr. Ware is an accomplished professor and writer in this field and will encourage the church in three messages on the providence of God. This conference is starting just after the Acts 29 Network boot camp in Seattle. As well, Dr. Ware will be preaching on Sunday, March 25th at Mars Hill Church. The price of the Resurgence Conference 2007 is $25 To register click here. Also, view the Welcome Packet for more details.
Is Barack Obama Evangelical or Post-Evangelical (Emergent)?
See the interview by Cathleen Falsani here.
Barak makes some good points about the fluidity of the term “evangelical,” points that Emergent folk will likely gobble up. Furthermore, he points out his reservations about certain passages of Scripture in McLaren style, something that distinguishes evangelicals from post-evangelicals. Evangelicals have always stood by the inerrancy and accuracy of Scripture (in the original autographs), grounding thier knowledge of God, themselves, and the world in a revealed epistemology. On this point McLaren waivers: I can not know that the records of Jesus are accurate with “absolute, undoubtable, unquestionable certainty.” (The Church in Emerging Culture, 201).