I’m Still Here

Without necessarily intending to, I've taken the last eight months off from blogging.  I've missed it, and I keep feeling the tug from the blogosphere, but life has been full of challenges and new endeavors that have forced me to carefully prioritize my time. I haven't stopped writing.  I write at work.  I'm taking college …

What John Saw

In the new beginning, God brought heaven to earth. And the earth was chaotic and terrifying; and darkness covered the abyss.  But the Spirit of God hovered over the chaos, and God spoke. And the Word of truth that He spoke in the beginning, was with God, and was in fact, God. And the Word …

A Year in the Life of a Tree

The gold and crimson display of the autumn trees might be a good reminder to us that the later years of our life are still critical.  They do not have to be the downward slope that many portray them to be.  It is the last leg of a race that demands our best effort.  It is a time in which our greatest work may still be done.  It is a time to give every ounce of energy to the succeeding generation.

There Is No Formula!

My last few posts were a tongue-in-cheek look at the dogmatic, formulaic views of salvation by a few of the more popular Christian denominations.  I imagine that most folks who hold any of those particular views would be irate at the lampooning of their views, but would chuckle at the depictions of the others.  I …

Systemocracy

Ever since the cycle of violence began to spiral out of control, the majority of humans have rejected a theistic solution to human violence and have endeavored to create a system that simply did not permit conflict. Rather than seeking to reconcile with our Creator, we spend all our energy building artificial structures to regulate other people’s behavior according to our preferences. In the process of creating these structures, we have produced negative psychological and physiological effects on individuals that in turn, reduce our society’s ability to actually progress.  By emphasizing following procedures over problem solving and good judgment, we’ve essentially shut down the part of our brain that performs these functions.  The result is that our brains’ right hemispheres have atrophied. It’s time we stopped looking for systemic solutions to our problems and began reconnecting the two halves of our brain.

The Value of Free Education

So we’re entering another election season, and, true to the playbook, we’re facing the usual onslaught of opportunists who are falling all over themselves to see who can promise to give away the most free stuff.  We’re only $22 trillion in debt, so no big deal.  This season, free college education is on the list …

The Housechurch Movement Ruined My Life

Heather Goodman over at “All Things Are Yours” has written a great post about the pitfalls of the house church movement. I’m re-blogging it here, unedited.  The title is intentionally dramatic, but don’t be put off by it. The article is very balanced, something that is quite rare, in my experience.  She eloquently addresses some insidious areas where those who leave the institutional church may tend to miss the mark.

All Things are Yours

Catchy title, no?   I thought about various things I could call this blog post when I started writing it — things like, “The Dark Hole of House Church” and “the Dangers of Housechurch” and the “Slough of Housechurch Despondency.”   I finally settled on “The Housechurch Movement ruined my life” because, there’s enough truth in that to be worth titling this post that, and, I bet it will make you curious — and rightfully so.

First, let me talk about what I mean by “the Housechurch Movement.”  In recent years, regular institutional-style churches have taken to calling midweek meetings that go on in homes a whole host of names, anything from “life groups” to “cell groups” but occasionally “house church” or “home church.”   At any rate, these things are generally healthy and that’s not the house church movement I am talking about.

The House Church movement is a movement about…

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The Pursuit

Freedom beckons - The wise man reckons - Sharpening eternal weapons - Life says “Try,” so try I must.

A Simple Plan

Imagine that you and I live in a modestly sized community.  When we first formed the community, we all agreed on a simple plan to protect the community.  Every time someone did something to harm the community, we would lock them in a large enclosure and isolate them from the community. It took several months, …

Books I Recommend

Because of a recent question about books that I recommend, I thought I’d publish a list of some of my favorite theology books.  I consider most religious books to be “inspirational” (and I use that word very loosely) fluff or agenda-driven rationalizations of personal dogma.  Books  resonate differently with different people, so I'm hesitant to …