Category: Evangelicalism
Winsomeness, Evangelism, and Pastoral Theology
It is an odd thing to see a pastor from New York City presented as the spokesman for a movement supposedly defined by its concern with “winsomeness.” Though I do not know the city that well, my few trips to it have...
Fear and Deconstruction
In Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inaugural speech, he told the American people that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The country was enduring a major economic crisis and would soon face the threat of fascism encircling the...
Thinking Christian: Essays on Testimony, Accountability, and the Christian Mind
James Spencer crossed my radar in a rather unlikely way. My friend, Allison, told me about the Moody Center which I proceeded to check out. Spencer, a former academic dean at Moody Bible Institute, is now the president of the...
The Church Will Not Be Consulted
In recent years it has become increasingly popular for churches of differing sizes, locations, and denominational traditions to make use of consultant services to find new ministers and staff for Christian institutions. If you browse the denominational job boards of...
A Second Fundamentalism and the Butterfly of American Christianity
We live in a time of division, as many of us can wearily testify, but we also live in a time of disorientation. Navigating divisions can be challenging, but the challenge multiplies when we are disoriented, and that is a...
C. S. Lewis on Evangelism and Beauty with Randy Newman
Randy Newman is Senior Fellow for Evangelism and Apologetics at the C.S. Lewis Institute in the Washington D.C. area. Randy is the author of several books including Mere Evangelism which is the basis of the following interview. Mere Evangelism: 10...
Power, the Trinity, and Abuse: Notes on the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
Predictably, the lessons drawn from Christianity Today’s “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” vary according to the biases of the listener. Some of those ‘deconstructing’ see the Mars Hill saga as increasing conformation of the wholesale bankruptcy of evangelical...
Why We All Need Baptists to be Baptist
The liturgy started sleepily this fourth Sunday in Advent, people trickling in later than usual. A traffic jam made traveling downtown to our Anglican parish especially difficult. It turned out the standstill was caused by the Secret Service. As we,...
The Role of Social Science in ‘Deconstructing’ White Evangelicalism
My friend Jonathan Leeman has written a thoughtful reflection on what he calls the project of evangelical deconstruction. I want to respond, in part because I expect some readers may view my forthcoming book, The Religion of American Greatness: What’s...
Ecclesial Realignment After the Culture Wars
Last summer, the recently retired minister Ray Ortlund announced that he had been appointed a canon theologian, a teaching office in the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). That a recently retired minister who held a PhD and had taught...