One thing many people know about me is I love a good argument. Not only do I feel like that is where I learn the most but I also seem to do fairly well at making a case and debating it. What I’ve never been good at though is remembering things. Stats, dates, faces, names, […]
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I’m not really a pastor. The Free Methodists aren’t into the idea of giving me the title of ‘ordained minister’ due to a few theological differences as of right now. But being part of a church has made me subject to the onslaught of requests to perform wedding ceremonies. This has actually given me a
Back in the day I met a guy who was planting a church in London, Ontario called Presence named James Shelley. Ever since I’ve been following his work and his brain. Lately he’s been working on a new project called The CAESURA LETTERS. It’s like a devotional in your inbox every morning. I thought I
Update: Challies describes what false teachers are and I’m pretty certain he fits the bill. Challies has a series right now called The False Teacher series. It’s getting quite ridiculous at this point, and it’s a little surprising he doesn’t see it. At what point do you swallow the reality that you are arrogant and
There once was a rich man who would travel around his country. He would bring with him his servants and food and family and setup camp along rivers and lakes. Each night he would wander to nearby settlements of people and scan for women that he found to be attractive and would be worthy of
Think about it. Smart Decision #1 World Vision makes a decision to be more in line with the gospel by removing the barriers of employment of their organization. This decision basically said they recognize that you could be a Christian and gay and still get hired. Typical human rights stuff. Typical Jesus stuff. By the
There has been lots of conversation lately in my circles about the violence in the Bible stemming from our 1 year series in 1-2 Samuel. All excellent conversation. Last night while speaking with Kevin and Aaron about the issues we realized that Christians have a particular issue with approaching issues of violence in the Bible.
Every once in a while I get into these ridiculous conversations with people who tend to ramble on with their ignorant comments about poor people. You know the kind of comments. Why don’t they just get a job? They are lazy. They don’t contribute to society. They are a drain on society. Similar comments we’d
I received this in an e-mail from George Esser today. It really is sad that despite River City doing the right thing and improving the lives of people that a bi-law would still override compassion. Reminded me of this quote from Martin Luther King Jr. One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility
Here is my train of thought on this one. 1. Issues of theology – hermeneutics, interpretation, christology, ecclesiology – are all issues of faith. This means that only people who subscribe to a particular kind of faith have any interest in exploring, determining and believing anything about it. They are thoughts and beliefs of a
As I meet different people I am becoming more and more certain of the kind of life that I want mine to become. I am always far from being the kind of person that I think I should be, but when I see certain kinds of people live their day to day lives I am
“If science is the commitment to know the world objectively and art the means of expressing oneself subjectively, religion was and is a bridge between subject and object, a way of making meaningful connection between something inside oneself and the world outside. For a time it seemed that science had driven out religion from the
This essay is in response to Sam Harris’ challenge to give reason for why I think his case for a scientific understanding of morality is mistaken. My response is broken into four arguments. Thanks to Chris Dragos and Josh Walters for helping me think clearer. 1. The Possibility Argument. Harris argues that morality is dependent
Last year was an exciting year. We had a house show with Zackary Lucky and just finished having another house show this year with The Grey Kingdom. I posted last year about two musicians you should listed to and well, we had both of them in our house. So that was awesome. Last year we
I’m taking a free course called “The Age of Sustainable Development” with Jeffery Sachs. We are just starting. So I’ll probably post some thoughts, struggles and questions on here while I go to think out loud. This is from A Framework for Sustainable DevelopmentPrepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network While most countries of the
So we are spending a full year in 1 & 2 Samuel as a church. Very quickly the violent stories of the Hebrew Bible start coming into play. Stories like when God tells Saul to slaughter a nation – every adult, every child, every animal. Stories like when Samuel beheads the King because Saul didn’t
A response from someone who actually attended the conference. All the talks from Act Like Men? The initial idea to start a counter-conference. A Prayer that we read together. As you may know we ran a small conference the week before a big conference in Hamilton as a type of response to some of the
We ran a small conference on the weekend as a response to the Act Like Men conference this coming weekend. The group of 200 of us prayed this together to end. You can listen to all the talks here. Look at your people We came here Gathered Sang Watched Listened Found Joy Got Angry Discovered
Within the larger churches of North America there is the insistent need for people to feel like they are ‘doing something.’ So much that goes on in larger churches is organized and executed by a small fraction of people. If you aren’t on a worship team, preaching, greeting or counting money there doesn’t seem to
One of the most influential people in my lives has been Robert Capon. In 2010 I wrote that there was a good chance I had fallen in love with him. We tried to call him a few times on the phone over the past few years just to speak to him and thank him and