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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical evangelicalism God Top Posts

The Forgotten Lesson of Bonhoeffer, and the American Church

I am worried about the rising popularity of Bonhoeffer in the United States. Very worried. I’m worried not because of his theology, or his political views, or his activism. I’m worried because so many people are interested in him…so many different people. Some people laud him for his non-violent pacifism, and other for his violent […]

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Bible discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical evangelicalism God Recent Posts Scripture

Mastering Objectivity? Or Subject to the Bible

Tim Challies ended a recent post criticizing the practice of Lectio Divina by saying, “This, then, is a danger in Lectio Divina, that it may teach us to approach the text subjectively rather than objectively.” But what is the big deal about reading the text subjectively as opposed to objectively? 3 Subjects of Scripture It is […]

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Anabaptist discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical Recent Posts

Platypus and the Anabaptist Tradition.

The evolutionary mut of the Protestant Reformation, the Anabaptist tradition is like the Platypus, hard to classify (see here for more). But, I believe, this tradition could be the secret agent of renewal everywhere. Just like an unbecoming platypus could become “Agent P”, so too the Anabaptist tradition is on a covert mission. What do […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical missional Recent Posts spiritual disciplines Top Posts Uncategorized

The Death of Leadership: Christ and Co-Leadship

  In these postmodern times we are used to hearing of the death of the author, the death of the text, and even the death of the book (unless you have a Kindle).  Well, today, it is the death of leadership, for Christ our leader is the Crucified One, and what servant is greater that […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology missional politics Prodigal Christianity theology Uncategorized

Discerning the Gospel: Before Acts 15 & Beyond

It seems there was a bit of confusion and concern about proposing communal discernment.  And that’s OK, it is a difficult thing to understand and from what I can tell it is even less often practiced.  On top of all of this are the countless instances of spiritual abuse, if not outright physical and sexual […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical missional theology Uncategorized

When mission grows up…the church?

Too often the efforts of church planting and evangelism in unreached places, goes by the term ‘missions.’  But when a group of believers is sufficiently gathered, we then say that a ‘church’ has been established.  The linking of terms in a before-after type of relationship has often been propagated by mission agencies themselves. But is […]

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discipleship missional

The Catch 22 of Power and Initiation

I’ve just started teaching a class at Trinity on “Issues for Men in Ministry.”  I’m taking the angle that really it is manhood that is the mystery here, not not ministry.  That unless men learn (maybe for the first time) what manhood is then it is impossible to function as a man in ministry.  Indeed, […]

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discipleship evangelical missional

Children of the Father or Disciples of Christ?

An essential failure in disciple in our church, and perhaps in evangelicalism, is dawning on me.  Not only a failure to follow Christ in his radical discipleship, in his self-giving love, in his calls from/against the world, for the sake of the world.  This failure of discipleship is of course the great omission of which […]