michael spencer...

...was bitten 2x and lives to blog ab it here: toward a Christian approach to homosexuals and homosexuality.

the sometimes two-dimensionalization of media coverage

daniel pulliam of the excellent get religion blog revisits the recent story where a pastor fired a long-time sunday school teacher who was a woman.

sometimes it's easy for a media outlet to collapse a story down to a simple binary instead of exploring its complexity.

An Around the Room On The Emerging Church

Justin Taylor, the English Standard Version Bible Project Manager at Crossway , has written a primer on the emerging church.

taylor's primer is featured in a recent 9Marks newsletter on the emerging church, which also features:

• Pastor's and Theologian's Forum on the Emerging Church with contributions from
  
  
• D. A. Carson
• Mark Driscoll
• Michael Horton
• Mike McKinley
• Daniel Montgomery
• Brent Thomas
• Carl Trueman
• Jonathan Leeman
  
  
• The Emerging Consequences of Ideas with summaries of the contributions of
  
  
• Walter Brueggeman
• Hans Georg Gadamer
• Stan Grenz
• John Franke
• Stanley Hauerwas
• George A Lindbeck
• Jurgen Moltmann
• Nancey Murphy
• Miroslav Volv
• NT Wright

I'm looking forward to reviewing this.

unusual stories of direct encounters

a friend of mine and I are discussing the idea of relying on experience overmuch. i don't know what to tell you about this story.

it reminds me of a what a charismatic catholic blind date told me one evening. she said that she was praying to mary when mary said to her, "what are talking to me for? talk to Jesus!"

it reminds me of a story a seminary prof told me of a man who was preaching one day and suddenly interrupted himself with, "There he is! He's beautiful! He's beautiful!" and then dropped dead.

for your consideration.

kudos to the rev john stevens

"Twelve-year-old Joe recently asked Jesus to live in his heart.

Yet the church where Joe accepted his Savior not even two weeks before will no longer allow the biracial boy to enter.

On Aug. 6, during its scheduled Sunday night business meeting, Fellowship Baptist Church in Saltillo voted not to accept blacks within the church. More specifically, the congregation also voted Joe out and said he could not return.

That evening Fellowship Baptist did not just say goodbye to Joe and an entire race of humans. With that decision the church's pastor, the Rev. John Stevens, resigned....

That evening Fellowship Baptist did not just say goodbye to Joe and an entire race of humans. With that decision the church's pastor, the Rev. John Stevens, resigned..."

- entire story

ht: jesus outside the box

UPDATE: "After the Daily Journal contacted Fellowship Baptist members, they gathered Aug. 17 to form a response. Mike Dillard, who acted as spokesperson for the church, said the congregation "categorically denies" accusations that the church took such a vote and feels the charge is an attempt by a party to do them harm."

- link to updated story

It'll be interesting to see if this piece gets picked up and investigated by a larger media outlet.

Hands from the Past

from Wikipedia:

"The hand paintings seen here at the Cueva de las Manos in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina were created between 13,000 and 9,300 years ago using bone-made pipes for spraying the paint on the wall. Most of the hands are left hands, which suggests that painters held the spraying pipe with their dexterous hand. The cave is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site."

Seeking A Fresh View of Jesus

I am really wanting to get a fresh view of Jesus.

I find that I tend to get lost in religious busyness and theological and ecclesial blah blah blah. It's not that I don't think the latter has its place - it does. It's just that I think it can't be the core of religious experience - the experience of a real and daily relationship with God. I want more. I want my walk with God to be transpropositional (which - of course - includes the propositional). David Brainard used to talk about people who talked about the shell rather than talking about the nut. That's what I'm talking about; I'm tired of all shell all the time. And I'm talking about myself.

To that end, today I made a couple of decisions (I'm only sharing some of them).

I plan to read each Gospel again while reading at least one excellent commentary for each one. I like Luke for its apologetic value and so I'm going to begin there. I just ordered the 1st volume of Darrell Bock's set on Luke. I'll be using DA Carson's excellent little volume on best NT commentaries and other sources to guide me as I choose commentaries. I'll probably hit Donald Guthrie and Luke itself of course while I wait for Bock's volume to arrive.

Bock recently blogged on commentaries he recommends.

I wonder if we might convince Scot McKnight, who edited the excellent Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, to do the same?

bloggers i would like to meet f2f one day

inspired by pernell goodyear:

• scot mcknight
• andrew jones
• jordon cooper
• justin taylor
• michael spencer
• ted olsen
• steve mccoy
  

Update: Please don't assume my list is exhaustive! :)

A Change of Season: The End of the Faithmaps Discussion Group

Yesterday, I announced to the faithmaps discussion group that I had decided to end the group sometime on Friday 1 Sept. Here is some of what I wrote in the announcement:

------------------

It is with sadness that I let you know that after five years of moderating the faithmaps discussion group, I've decided to end the group.

I have come to the conclusion that my current life situation and calling is such that I no longer feel that I can give moderating this group the time that it needs and deserves.

What's true now that wasn't when we started in May of 2001:

* Beth and I co-lead KatrinaGrace which just decided to branch out into working with Habitat for Humanity in Slidell, LA in addition to continuing the work we're doing with Compassion Ministries just north of NO. By God's grace we're planning on sending a team a month between October 2006 and Nov 2007 to New Orleans' North Shore. Our church's Sunday 27 Aug service is entirely dedicated to KatrinaRelief. We are very excited about this work. 60 folks on 8 Teams have so far gone down and we're hoping to send a lot more.

* Since April of 2005 I've been serving on my local church's Leadership Development Team and just a few weeks ago we launched our mentor/protege - workshop based process. I'm one of the Workshop Facilitators. We've been able to implement a lot of the transpropositional approaches we've developed and discussed here.

* [I've been getting professional writing jobs with a national Christian organization].

* I continue to post to my blog almost daily.

* And, as I've mentioned, three years ago I executed a major life change and intentionally began devoting less time to my online activities and more time to the four most important people in my life.

* And then there's the whole full-time job with USA TODAY thing which really cuts into my free time. ;)


And so, sometime on Friday 1 September, I plan to turn the group off. I do not plan to delete the group. Archives will still be searchable and accessible to the public as always. There is such a rich treasure store of posts here that I would hate to see lost.

One day I may start another group or restart this one. But I don't know if that will happen.

I don't intend not to participate in groups, just not to moderate one. So you'll probably see me around.

It's my hope that the community and discussions that began here will continue in some context. And so one reason I wanted to give several day notice was to invite those on this list with other groups - or those on this list that wish to start new groups - to feel perfectly free to solicit members here during the next 9 days.

But it is a change and it is a loss and I will miss the group that is faithmaps. I know there is more to say but I can't put it all into words. Maybe I'll be able to betw now and 1 Sept.

Thank you all for all you've given me here. I'm very grateful. I have made mistakes as a moderator and you've been patient and gracious to me

This, of course, isn't goodbye. It's just a change of season.

--------------------------------

The driving force in my decision was the amount of time that I could dedicate to the group. Our environment was unique because there were only two criteria of participation: interest in "theology, leadership, & praxis in the emerging church" and respect. Anyone could join and this led to some rather interesting discussion! I had come to the conclusion that the group needed more constant attention than I could give it and rather than setting up a team of moderators - which I thought might still take a lot of my time and effort - I decided to let folks explore other options.

It was not an easy decision and one that I make with some sadness.

I gained so much from this community. The faithstory online small groups that we've iteratively offered were wonderful. I made some great friends thru the group. But I felt that for me it was time to move on.

faithmaps.org, however, will continue...as will this blog.

katrina: where did the money go?

Someone commented to our earlier post about Katrina stats one year later:

" My heart goes out to those rebuilding their lives!

Are there any sound sources that have tracked where all the money has gone? Is this even possible?"

Charity Navigator - a great place to go when you're evaluating charities - has posted a "One Year Later" series of articles analyzing how the philantropic response went.

katrina by the numbers, part 2: 1 year later

USA TODAY poll in today's paper:

• 16% - those who say that their lives are back to normal one year later
• 56% - those with kids under 18 who say that their kids have been negatively affected by the storm
• 25% - those who have not moved back
• 20% - number of those who have moved back but believe they may need to move out again
• 14% - those currently unemployed
  
• "those who say they are experiencing a great deal or quite a bit of"
• anxiety - 27%
• trouble sleeping - 26%
• depression - 23%
• "difficulties in marriage or other family relationships" - 18%
• Top 5 Most Difficult Things to Deal with Since Katrina:
1. damaged property
2. financial problems
3. mental or emotional sate
4. "getting our lives back on track"
5. "no longer having a job"
• Top 5 Types of Help Most Desired to Recover from Katrina
1. $
2. help with damage or contractors
3. more FEMA help
4. "a place to stay"
5. a job

- USA TODAY related story.

- katrina by the numbers, part 1: the impact of the storm

Office 2007 Beta 2: MS Word

I had been working on an article and the editor asked me to use track changes in Word. My Office 2000 Word Track Changes functionality didn't seem terribly robust, and so I downloaded Office 2007 Beta 2.

I really like it and it seems to be a major upgrade. I've only been using it a few days but already I've very much appreciated the rich Review functionality. Redmond has also moved away from menu based options toward what they call "The Ribbon." The wikipedia article puts it well:

"These applications have been selected for the UI overhaul, because those applications center around document authoring and present a multitude of options to the same regard."

You can now blog from within Word, though that functionality has been available as an add-in for a while now.

It costs $1.50 to download Office 2007 Beta 2 and the product will cease functioning on 1 Feb 2007.

I definitely intend to upgrade.

seth godin's advice for authors

here

ht: steve addison

The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan

"What makes Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years unique, however, is that it is the only project of its kind to explore the years during which Dylan was scandalizing the pop-culture world with recordings and performances that proclaimed Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation.

"A lot of Dylan fans are not understanding or tolerant of Dylan's gospel period or the music," Gilbert told WORLD. "But they really should love that period. That's why I was happy to delve into the subject and help give an honest appraisal."

- World Magazine Cover Story on Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years - a documentary that delves into Dylan's publicly Christian period.

ht: andrew jackson

a great quote from john wimber

"Don’t be afraid of pain. All my life I’ve been afraid of pain. But pain’s not so bad. I’ve been in the valley and it’s not so bad. In fact the view is wonderful. You never get to see Jesus quite as well as you do in the valley.

It isn’t prosperity that gives you the complete, the indepth, the intimate view of Jesus. It’s pain. It’s in the midst of pain, it’s in the midst of heartbreak, it’s in the midst of the rendering of relationships, its in the midst of tragic circumstances that you get the heart of God revealed to you.

So don’t be afraid of pain. If God’s allowed it he’ll have purpose in it. . . I love and know my Savior today more than I have ever known him. And I am now 31 years in the Lord. I’m so grateful for cancer. I’m so grateful that I went through it. Because I could never have known Jesus the way I now know him. And frankly I could never have known my wife the way I now know her."

- wikipedia on john wimber

ht: steve addison

"Getting Things Done"

This book by David Allen is rockin my world. I'm still wrapping my brain around it but it's already making a difference. Definitely get the book, but the wikipedia summary is good and here's the whole process in a few simple graphs (pick one).

here's another nice summary.

also see

- the 43 folders wiki
- lifehack
- a Wired News story on the cultesque status of this movement

- for a summary of various software options for implementing GTD, see Getting Things Done Software Systems, part 1 and part 2 by downloadsquad.

the gospel, justice and culture

i've been really enjoying and benefiting from listening to some of the talks given at the May 2006 Reform and Resurgence Conference. ed stetzer gave two really helpful talks on culture - one more visionary and one more practical. and tim keller's talk on the gospel and his talk on social justice were both very good. audio and video links are avail at the conference site.

these talks are highly recommended.

stetzer also pointed everyone to a very helpful demographic resource peoplegroups.

Darrell Bock on Getting Started with the New Perspective on Paul

Bock suggests some bibliographical starting points for studying the NPP.

fred peatross...

...has ended his summer sabbatical and has restarted Abductive Columns.

a seed of hope

"When he was told a Jewish man was the donor, Elias was confused, the doctor said.

"There is a war between Israelis and Arabs on the one hand, and he is getting the cornea of a Jewish man, who was killed by an Arab missile," Rehany said."

- ABC news link

dissertation on emerging church blogs

bryan murley is writing a scholarly paper on the top 50 emerging church blogs as defined by technorati.

should be an interesting read.

Breaking News: Cease Fire Agreed to for Monday

-link

let's hope it sticks.

paper clips

Almost every Friday night, Beth, Michaela (10), Skye (8), and Alia (6), and I have "Family Movie Night." Tonight we decided to watch Paper Clips, a movie about what happened when in 1998 a Whitwell, TN middle school decided to collect one paper clip for every one of the six million souls that lost their lives in the Holocaust. This exclusively Protestant and almost entirely white community wished to learn about tolerance and diversity.

In October of 2001, the school was able to put 11 million paperclips (now including other groups killed by the Third Reich) in a railcar that they had found and arranged to have shipped to the US that became part of a memorial at the school.

The material was too old for Li-Li and a challenge for Skye, but Chaela and I sat thru the whole thing (Beth left with Alia).

It's a wonderful, wonderful deeply moving documentary and I highly recommend it.

Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders

In the faithmaps discussion group, I recently asked one of our participants, Earl Creps - who is Associate Professor of Leadership and Spiritual Renewal at AGTS, to say a few worlds about his new book.

"My book is called Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders. I wrote it really out of my own shortcomings, so the supply of raw material was ample. Over some years in ministry, and especially after being in relationship with a number of younger leaders I noticed a disturbing trend: almost everything that God was doing to shape my life seemed to be happening outside the "official" list of spiritual disciplines (at least as understood by a used-to-be-a-Lutheran Pentecostal like me). So I began pulling together some of my experiences an came up with 12 "off-road" disciplines, spiritually formative experiences that we encounter, well, off-road, complete with all the dust, bumps, and bruises that go with leaving the pavement. After the fact, these practices seemed to fall into 6 personal (e.g., reverse mentoring) and 6 organizational (e.g., passing the baton).

I talked about some of these ideas at a conference in California last year. The talk went so badly that about 1/2 the audience left before it was over, but one of the people who stayed was an editor for Jossey-Bass. So J-B and Leadership Network have partnered to publish the book."

Endorsements:

Len Sweet:

“This is one of the most exciting books I have read in years. It shifts our focus from doing church to being church, and promises to be a standard reference in all future discussions of missional leadership.”

Todd Hunter:

“If you are trying to figure out what is going on in contemporary culture you’ve got to read Off-road Disciplines. Creps not only knows what is going on today, he teaches us how to engage today’s people as well. The chapter on “reverse mentoring” is worth the price of the book. No one can be effective in ministry today without the skills and attitudes associated with listening and conversation. Off-Road Disciplines gives us the map and points us in the right direction.”

Ed Stetzer:

“Earl Creps has written a deeply personal and challenging book--one that caused me to think about my own spiritual journey. Too many of us have made spiritual formation a series of activities and programs; Earl takes us off the map of common practice and into the places where the Spirit is at work. It reminds us that true spiritual formation pervades our lives and the ministries we serve, providing a helpful balance of being

and doing. It will be a great encouragement to all who read it.”

geekesque: From Dell to HP

Ok, so I had blogged earlier that I ordered a Dell E1505. Then I read gregg caruso's post about them blowing up and the terrible customer service he received.

Then I decided to upgrade my warranty to change it from the standard 1 year mail-in to 2 years on-site. When I bought my last Dell Inspiron 6 years ago, I had a 3 year on-site warranty and I ended up using it 2x

It took 4 or 5 calls over the course of 90 minutes before they told me that I could not do that over the phone. What I had to do was to cancel the order by phone, then go back online and reorder the box with the better warranty. And so I did.

Until now, I had always had superb service from Dell. The last two boxes I've gotten have been from Dell. So this runaround was pretty disappointing and sobering particularly since I was calling to give them more money.

But then when I read that the keyboard was a bit stiff, because I have repetitive stress issues with my hands, I decided to walk into some stores, find some notebooks with keyboards I like, and then check the CNET Reviews. I finally landed on HP's dv2000t. CNET likes it and, less importantly, it's one of the most beautiful laptops I'ver ever seen.

I called Dell again, cancelled my order, ordered the HP box online so that I could trick it out and get a really nice printer for only $20. Should be here in about 10 days or so.


image from notebook review

on writing well

from Leadership Journal:

Use action verbs
Forms of the verb “to be”—is, was, were, etc., make for dead writing. In every possible case, pick forceful verbs.

Use anecdotes
Each point in a Leadership article needs a carefully chosen illustration, colorfully written. By basing principles in specific experiences, we show how to minister effectively amid the complexity and ambiguity of real life.

Use short sentences whenever possible
Variety of length, of course, contributes to good style, but writers err more often with too many long sentences than short ones.

Use long words only when necessary
Some critics claim scholars and professionals purposely write to obfuscate meaning, to cover fuzzy thinking, or to sound intellectual. Of this Leadership writers will never be guilty!

Assume your reader bores easily
Remember, if he flips the page from lack of interest, you’ve lost! Keep asking yourself, “What grabs my attention? An illustration? A fresh insight? A well-turned phrase?” Keep the reader with you by introducing a constant stream of interesting material.

After writing your manuscript, go through it and see how many action verbs you have. Mark each noun you can taste, hear, see, smell, or feel. You can see hubcaps, handkerchiefs, coffee mugs, and lightning bugs. Good writers fill their prose with objects you literally see in your mind’s eye. Be as specific as possible. For instance, “Toyota” is better than “car” for conjuring up an image.

ht: Steve Addison

please pray for bob robinson and...

...his heart.

more on spencer burke's new book

scot mcknight completes his series:

- part 1

- part 2

- part 3

- part 4

I had earlier posted excerpts form parts 1 and 2.

Here are excerpts from part 4:

"

1. He doesn’t believe God is a “person” (195): “I’m not sure I believe in God exclusively as a person anymore either…. The truth is that seeing God as spirit more than person doesn’t destroy my faith” (195).

Instead, he is a panentheist — which means that “God is ‘in all,’ alongside my creedal view of God as Father, Son, and Spirit” (195). He emphasizes immanence, “radical connectedness” and “relational theology.” [Again, this is flat-out wrong: “panentheism” is not the view that God is in all but that all is in God, and there’s a big diference.]

[I will confess to you when I read that God is not a person, my blood boiled. To deny personhood to God, the hypostasis or “person”hood, denies the essence of Christian orthodoxy and the sole foundation for our personhood and the essence both of what the gospel is — restoring cracked (person-ed) Eikons to God, who is person — and what redemption is. This genuinely is what theologians have always called “heresy.” When he says he accepts the creedal view of Father, Son, and Spirit and then says he doesn’t believe God is “person” but “spirit” — frankly, this last statement completely undermines the former. What are the FAther, Son, and Spirit but the persons of the Godhead?]"

mcknight concludes:

"But, I have a responsibility before God to be faithful to the gospel, so I have to say the following — and I don’t do so with anything but sadness.

... I want to express my dismay today over what I think is crossing the boundaries. I will have to be frank; but I have to be fair. Here’s how I see this book’s theology as a Christian theologian. The more I ponder what Spencer does in this book, the more direct I have become — be glad I don’t have any more posts about this book.

Is Spencer a “heretic”? He says he is, and I see no reason to think he believes in the Trinity from reading this book. That’s what heresy means to me. Denial of God’s personhood flies in the face of everything orthodox. To say that you believe in the creedal view of God as Father, Son, and Spirit and deny “person” is to deny the Trinitarian concept of God.

Is Spencer a “Christian”? He says he is. What is a Christian? Is it not one who finds redemption through faith in Christ, the one who died and who was raised? If so, I see nothing in this book that makes me think that God’s grace comes to us through the death and resurrection of Christ. Grace seems to be what each person is “born into” in Spencer’s theses in this book. That means that I see no reason in this book to think Spencer believes in the gospel as the NT defines gospel (grace as the gift of God through Christ by faith).

I must say this: Spencer told me on the phone that he thinks all are included in God’s grace from the start solely because of Jesus’ death and resurrection; why not write that in this book?

Spencer, you’re a good guy. But I have to say this to you: Go back to church. Go back to the gospel of Jesus — crucified and raised. Let the whole Bible shape all of your theology. Listen to your critics. Integrate a robust Christology, a robust death-and-resurrection gospel, and a full Trinitarian theology back into your guide to eternity."

there's going to be a new Star Trek movie...

...enjoy infinite speculation here.

Mars Hill Audio...

launches a podcast!

ht: brad boydston

we had commented some time ago on how very, very helpful mars hill audio is.

on writing: why i love the chicago manual of style

When you're writing for hire, you think twice about things you typically do while writing that you now realize will garner an editor's scrutiny. For me, one of those things was beginning sentences with "but," which historically I've done with wanton abandon. Some time ago I invested in the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style to assist me with such projects. Feeling a growing sense of angst over my predisposition to begin sentences with conjunctions, this morning I flipped to my index and eventually found words I might have crafted in a daydream:

"There is a widespread belief - one with no historical or grammatical foundation - that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as and, but, or so. In fact, a substantial percentage (often as many as 10 percent) of the sentences in first-rate writing begin with conjunctions. It has been so for centuries, and even the most conservative grammarians have followed this practice. Charles Allen Lloyd's 1938 words fairly sum up the situation as it stands even today: 'Next to the groundless notion that it is incorrect to end an English sentence with a preposition, perhaps the most wide-spread of the many false beliefs about the use of our language is the equally groundless notion that it is incorrect to begin one with 'but' or 'and.' As in the case of the superstition about the prepositional ending, no textbook supports it, but apparently about half of our teachers of English go out of their way to handicap their pupils by inculcating it. One cannot help wondering whether those who teach such a monstrous doctine ever read any English themselves'"(pp. 193,194).

I'm not making this up.

"Sweet freedom whispered in my ears and I fly away."

books on the book

brother maynard does an around the room of those who make commentary recommendations. very helpful.

andy stanley visits an emergent cohort

per Adam Cleaveland via Brother Maynard

flaming laptops!

a couple of hours ago, I purchased Dell Inspiron E1505 Laptop and then read gregg caruso's post about flaming Dell laptops (with pictures) and his comment:

"I'm not a big fan of Dell computers. Last year I went through three replacement computers on a new purchase and finally switched to Mac. Both the service and the quality were extremely poor and I eventually needed to file a claim with the better business bureau."

This was the third Dell we've purchased since 2000 and so far I've been delighted with them. But we'll see!

a great john owens quote

"Every act of sin is a fruit of being weary of God."

ht: justin taylor via david wayne.

- the writings of john owens

help from anne lamott

i'm working on a first draft for a very long article i've been hired to write and I'm watching bad sentence after bad sentence pouring through my fingers onto the screen. i just read somewhere that anne lamott said something about the necessity of bad first drafts and googled her name and "first draft" and found a wonderful excerpt of her Bird by Bird:

"People tend to look at successful writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts."

- full excerpt which does not read as if it were a first draft

ok, posting that made me feel better. back to my bad writing!

watch this spot!

my friend, carmen c dicello, author of Dangerous Blessing and a contributor to the New Dictionary of Apologetics has launched a blog.

objective news sources on hezbollah and israel

some folks in response to earlier posts have been commenting with preferred news sources for the coverage of the conflict.

please feel free to comment here with the news sites you have found to be the most reliable.

thanks,

emergent village's new website

has officially been launched

with

their board of directors

and

their coordinating group

and

a weblog

and

a podcast.

israel, lebanon, and hezbollah

jordon serves up a helpful around-the-room of christian comment on the current middle east crisis.

scot mcknight reviews spencer burke's new book

excerpts:

"What I most like about this book is that Spencer is committed to Jesus. Here are his words:

“Do I remain personally committed to Jesus and his teachings as found in the Bible? I do” (11)."

but

"Spencer’s operative definition of love, though never stated, is tolerance, niceness, relational network, non-condemning, and respect of others. Fine — but that is not how Jesus defined it or practiced it. No matter how hard it is for us, Matthew 23 and chps. 5-7 have to be wedged into our definition of love if we want to “follow Jesus” in his teachings. To use Jesus’ term love to defend the inclusiveness found in Heretic’s Guide is to surrender what Jesus meant by it. I don’t know how Spencer can say Jesus “didn’t condemn” (139)."

and

"John 14:6 comes up twice in these chapters. Here’s what Spencer says:

1. Christianity didn’t exist as a religion when Jesus wrote these words. (If he means “institutional church,” he’s right. I don’t see any connection to John 14:6 in this point: it has to do with following Jesus rather than joining a religion.)
2. No one recorded the words of Jesus. (Probable, but Bob Gundry’s dissertation argued otherwise; others have contended the oral tradition was strong enough that what Jesus said was remembered.)
3. So we have no proof these are his words. (Spencer, don’t play that game unless you know what you are talking about.)
4. He spoke in Aramaic, therefore we can’t take anything literally. (Spencer, you’ve got to be kidding me; this flies in the face of all translation theory.)"

• part 1
  
• part 2

greg gilbert on greg boyd and politics in the pulpit

"Life and Marriage have been swept up into our national politics in the last thirty years. Both of them are undeniably “political issues” now. But long before they became that, they were issues about which God spoke to us in Scripture, and that doesn’t change just because the nation has developed an interest in them. It’s true that the church should never become just a wing of any political party. But the church has to speak where Scripture speaks, and Scripture most definitely speaks about abortion and marriage. Whether one political party or another decides to agree with us is beside the point."

- link
- Greg Boyd in the NY Times

scot mcknight knocks off andrew jones

from the throne of technorati's emerging church tag. andrew was unavailable for comment but holds both the 2nd and 3rd slots!

bryan murley is doing his dissertation on the top 50.

(emergesque stands at 25th, or 24th if you exclude carla)

emergent village's new coordinating group

has been posted here. Among others we see

• jamie arpin-ricci
  
  
• jordon cooper
  
  
• john r franke
  
  
• steve knight
  
  
• scot mcknight
  
  
• will samson