Read Scripture and Let Scripture Read You
What is the Bible? The Bible is unlike any other book ever written… it's an ancient collection of writings, comprised of 66 separate books, written over approximately 1,600 years, by at least 40 distinct authors. The Old Testament contains 39 books written from...
#PrayingforBaltimore: A Mother’s Love, Embarrassment, & Anger
One of my children once made me so angry that I lost my temper and almost did and said things I would likely forever regret. I remember seeing her face and realizing that for the first time in her life, she was actually scared of me. It immediately chastened my temper...
The Playground of Heavenly Reality: Pneumatological Sacramentalism
My early Christian experience was largely in church traditions that were about as far from any form of sacramentalism that one could get. Our family attended churches within the Evangelical and Charismatic movements, none of which ever used the word “sacrament."...
#SVS2015: Organic Church Forms within the Vineyard
At this year's Society of Vineyard Scholars annual meeting, focused on "Thinking with the Church, Thinking with the Vineyard," features a panel featuring three of our ThinkTheology.org contributors: Brad Blocksom, Kenny Burchard, and Luke Geraty. Here are the papers...
Steve Chalke’s Irrational, Ignorant, & Arrogant Response Regarding Howard Yoder
Thomas Creedy wrote "An Open Letter to My Church Friends" in regards to a recent book published by Steve Chalke called Being Human: How to Become the Person You Were Meant to Be. Since anthropology and spiritual formation are such vitally valuable topics for the...
Healthy Things Grow: Multiplication in Discipleship
God cares about multiplication: "The first essential principle [of church growth] is to realize that God wants his lost children found and enfolded. Church growth explodes from the life-giving nature of the eternal God. Jesus Christ gave his disciples the Great...
Yes, Everyone Gets to Play. No, Everyone Doesn’t Get to Lead
An often quoted Wimberism in the Vineyard movement is that "everyone gets to play" (I've written about this here). We often encourage our church family to remember that there aren't any "superheroes" in the kingdom of God and that all of God's people should...
A Review of Four Ed Cyzewski Books You *Need* to Own
Last year I was at Society of Vineyard Scholars’ annual conference and had lunch with a really cool dude with a beard. He informed me that he had started attending the Central Vineyard in Columbus, OH and was a writer. As an aspiring author, I was immediately...
An Opportunity for Reformed Spirituality: Why Albert Mohler Concerns Me
Christian spirituality hasn't always been a topic of interest for me. Despite the breadth of spiritual depth found in historic Puritanism, my exposure to Reformed theology focused mostly upon doctrine and, sadly, overlooked a tremendous amount of excellent resources...
Simon Chan on Worship…
Simon Chan, one of my favorite theologians, writes: "Because worship is the defining practice of the church, it “provides the primary source for the nourishment of the Christian spiritual life.” Over time worship will have a deep and abiding effect on the...
The Best Intro to Kingdom Theology…
If I had to summarize all of the preaching of Jesus and all of the preaching of Paul, I'd suggest that they had one message with many applications: the kingdom of God. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom (Matt. 4:17, 23; 9:35; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 8:1; Acts 1:3, etc.) and Paul...
Garrett’s New Commentary on Exodus
Duane A. Garrett is an Old Testament scholar who currently teaches at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He's well respected in his field and I've found several of his commentaries quite helpful, so I was excited to review his latest addition to the Kregel...
Come to the Table: Experiencing God’s Presence in Communion
For the past few months I've been working on writing a booklet for Vineyard USA, edited by my good buddy Ramon Mayo, on the Lord's Supper. As many of you know, I'm a huge advocate for the regular celebration of the Lord's Supper. In fact, the inspiration for this...
Postmoderns Need (and have) Creeds!
Been reading Carl R. Trueman's The Creedal Imperative. I love Trueman... even when I totally and completely disagree with him (which seems like 50% of the time). He makes so many wonderful points that are historically informed and hilariously obvious, especially...
Spirit Renewed Ecclesiology: The Contribution of Moltmann’s Pneumatology for the Church
Of contemporary Protestant theologians, Jürgen Moltmann stands among giants as he is considered one of the most influential and widely read systematicians of his time.[1] Though Moltmann was Professor of Theology at Tübingen from 1967 to 1994, he spent a number of his...
On Discerning God’s Will, My Future, and What I Enjoy
If Jesus asked you to do more, would you? How about if Jesus asked you to slow down, would you? What if the Lord wanted you to both do more, slow down, and refocus? Socrates said "Beware of the barrenness of a busy life." In Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton writes...
The Evangelism Study Bible (a review)
I have a love/hate relationship with study bibles. On one hand, I really like that there is a resource for people who may not have had seven hundred years of seminary training. On the other, it's frustrating when some well-meaning people treat the commentary notes as...
A Book Review on Ministry to Orphans: Why Daniel J. Bennett is Awesome
St. James tells us that caring for widows and orphans is the kind of religion that is pure and undefiled before God (James 1:27). Considering that there are more than 132 million orphaned children, the Church has its work cut out. Daniel J. Bennett understands this...
Top Ten Books of 2014
As is customary for this time of year, I'd like to share the top ten books that I read. I've done this for 2011 and 2013 and have provided lists for my top five books on the plurality of pastors, top five books on the kingdom of God, top ten books on Charismatic...
The Language of Bad Leadership: 3 Phrases to Avoid
A few years ago I attended a meeting being led by two people who served in a leadership role within our church. There were about ten of us sitting around a table and I thought our meeting was going to be focused on strategic planning and a chance for us all to kind of...
10 Signs You are Dealing with a Theological Troll!
The art of trolling has long been perfected by a select group of people who reside on the Internet. It happens in just about every circle of Internet interaction, but I'm especially keen to recognizing when trolling happens of the theological variety. In fact, I've...
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