Today I was made aware of a most-interesting interview with Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham. He discusses the problem of how evangelicals have greatly veered off-track in what they hold most dear and worthy of proclamation: a political ideology rather than the gospel.
Read some of the interview below: Continue reading
Here is episode 7 at Prodigal Thought Podcast.
The title of this episode is very odd: The Gospel Is Political. However, I don’t mean this in the normal way we think of “politics”. In this podcast, I share 2 brief points of why I believe the gospel is a political announcement.
Listen to or download the podcast episode below (15:05 in length). Continue reading
A couple of months ago, I pointed out a newer blog which I’ve been frequenting as of late. It’s known as Respectful Conversation. Simply stated, I love that blog title.
It’s headed up by Harold Heie, a Senior Fellow at The Colossian Forum and at the Center for Faith & Inquiry at Gordon College and, as stated on the blog, he offers some thoughts as to the purpose of why it’s been created:
That better way is to create welcoming spaces for those who disagree with one another to have respectful conversations. As a Christian, I believe this better way is integral to the call for Christians to love others, for a deep expression of love for another person is to provide a safe, welcoming space for that person to disagree. That goal can be shared with all persons of good will, whatever their religious or non-religious convictions.
Such rings true to my heart – that true dialogue could take place amongst Christians of differing perspectives and traditions. Unfortunately, such is not always the case. Of course, Christlike love is not a mish-mash way where nothing actually matters. But true dialogue begins by loving well and listening well to one another. Continue reading
I’m currently reading Stanley Hauerwas’ and William Willimon’s work, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony. The book was published 23 years ago, so one might argue it’s a bit outdated. But it basically looks at how the church is to engage in culture, especially the church in America engaging in American culture.
In the second chapter of this book, Hauerwas and Willimon reflect on some thoughts of Anabaptist-Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder. Yoder is most known for his defence of Christian pacifism. In one particular work, Yoder distinguishes between 3 perspectives on church: 1) the activist church, 2) the conversionist church and 3) the confessing church. Yoder argues favourably for the confessing church.
Hauerwas and Willimon do not agree with every detail of Yoder’s in respect to the confessing church, but they go on to share their own perspective of what the confessing church should be like. And I was quite gripped by their thoughts in regards to what is church: Continue reading
I read something posted by a friend this morning that got me thinking:
What if the 100’s of millions of dollars (maybe 1 billion plus) spent on election campaigning had been utilised to help the poor and disadvantaged?
What would have happened? Would we have had a paradigm shift in American perspective?
Maybe if we start now, we could see some kind of change in 2016. Just maybe…
The Prodigal Thought 