Reflecting on Church #7: A Bivocational Minister With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #7. Churches typically spend the majority of their...
The Near Death Experience of Jonah Live a life of obedience and without regret in order to finish strong Most people know the story of Jonah: God sends Jonah to help Nineveh. But Jonah gets in a boat headed in the opposite direction. God sends a...
Obadiah Proclaims Justice The book of Obadiah in the Bible contains a prophecy about the nation of Edom. Among other things, Edom is criticized for their pride. The primary issue, however, is not what they did, but what they didn’t do...
Three Problems Caused by Theology An Academic Pursuit of Religious Knowledge Can Cause Much Harm When I wrote about the dangers of pursuing a right theology, I noted that God doesn’t want us to know about him. He wants us to know him on a...
Reflecting on Church #6: A Pleasing Present and a Bleak Future With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #6. There are many positive aspects of...
Nineveh, Part II: How Patient Should God Be? The prophetic book of Nahum is essentially a sequel to the book of Jonah. Both focus on the people of Nineveh. Jonah proclaims doom and destruction on them. They have a change of heart (repent). And...
Be Careful What You Say: Advice for Prophets and to Us The book of Deuteronomy has a curious passage about prophecy. It teaches if a prophet says something God didn’t instruct him or her to say, the prophet must be executed. That should certainly...
How Important Is It to Have the Right Theology? God Doesn’t Want Us to Study Him; He Wants Us to Know Him When people first learn that I have a PhD and where I did my postgrad work, they assume I’m into theology. Imagine their disappointment to...
Reflecting on Church #5: Intrigued but Frustrated With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #5. A church growth buzzword is seeker sensitive...
Jonah and the Big Fish You likely know the story of Jonah: He tries to run from God, Spends a 3-day “time out” in the belly of a large fish (the Bible doesn’t say it’s a whale), Is given a second chance, Then does what God commands...
