From the monthly archives:

July 2009

A nursery rhyme – the flesh vs. a new heart in Christ

by Dan on July 28, 2009

I went to an excellent Scott Phillips concert Saturday night at a local church. Scott is traveling throughout the country partnered with WorldVision, reminding the Church that She is an organism – not an organization – and showing the world the hope, freedom and love that can only be found in authentic Christ-centered community. To [...]

{ 1 comment }

Weekly Wisdom

by Dan on July 24, 2009

“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”         ~Saint Augustine  

{ 0 comments }

VBS: Adventures in Spiritual Compromise

by Dan on July 23, 2009

I saw this at Extreme Theology and laughed at how true it is. I can’t tell you how many VBS programs are themed after very worldly things (pop-culture icons, popular movies, etc.) and do a very poor job of teaching the love of Jesus Christ to children. On the bright side, it gets the children [...]

{ 4 comments }

Street Evangelism… usually sucks

by Dan on July 22, 2009

My wife, mom, brother, friend, cousins and I went to the Indianapolis 500 this year. We saw a couple groups of people who were “evangelizing” on the streets. The first example we saw was a group of people simply handing out gospel tracts by asking, “Did you get one of these?” Subtle, yet it can [...]

{ 5 comments }

Audience vs. Community

by Dan on July 16, 2009

Chris Brogan, a social media blogger, recently posted on the difference between an audience and a community. He writes: The difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. When we say community and we mean our selling demographic, that’s not the [...]

{ 7 comments }

We Are Beggars. That is true.

by Dan on July 15, 2009

Martin Luther penned these words shortly before he passed away, demonstrating his profound grasp of Christian spirituality. In Matthew 5:3, Jesus very simply says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The word used for “poor” in this verse is the term for a beggar. Those who are poor [...]

{ 4 comments }

God is grieved over the death of Michael Jackson

by Dan on July 1, 2009

This is an amazing reminder that all life is precious and valuable to God. Charles Lehmann reminds us that God does not desire the death of a sinner: It is tempting for many of us to look at the death of Michael Jackson with just a little bit of quiet happiness. Though he was never [...]

{ 3 comments }

Not a biblical scholar? No problem, but don't fake it

by Dan on July 1, 2009

I’m sick of pastors drawing erroneous insights from texts due to bad exegesis. Looking a word up in a Strong’s Dictionary does not constitute being an exegetical scholar. This is seen frequently in the writings of many major evangelical leaders today. I just stumbled upon another faulty translation (and teaching) by Rob Bell. In one [...]

{ 1 comment }