Category: Church
Why Church History? – The Cloud of Witnesses and the Body of Christ
As you may know, I am trying to make a career out of church history and historical theology. It is a field not without honor, though it is often overshadowed by the other theological disciplines, as well as the more...
On the Height of the Buildings in Heaven
Ever wonder about the buildings in heaven? And the block sizes? Two articles sparked similar thinking the other day. The first is in the most recent Atlantic, from Harvard economist and polymath Edward Glaeser. It’s about how skyscrapers promote human...
Mere Christendom
Doug Wilson has been at the forefront of arguing for what he calls “Mere Christendom” of late, and I’m grateful to him for it. Even though we disagree on some important particulars, there’s nothing objectionable about this bit: The mistake...
On Being “Missional”
Some time ago I went through and made a stab at defining the Gospel. I thought I’d continue plowing through defining terms and throw out these definitions for ‘missional’: A “missional” life is a Gospel-centered life in its external dimension....
The Peculiarity that is Church
Today, while listening to an excellent rendition of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” at my stereotypical, evangelical, and Baptist megachurch, I was struck by how non-stereotypical church really is. To think that, week in and week out, seemingly distinct individuals...
Lousy Trailers and Sewage-filled Ponds
There were a thousand reasons to hate the small campsite nine friends and I called home for three days last summer. Our “cabin” was more like a trailer. There were four mattresses and ten of us – and making room...
A Perennial Theme: Christianity Must Change or Die
“Adapt or perish” is the word at the Huffington Post today. It’s a line of thought that Christians are well acquainted with, as some variation of it fuels both the liberal revisionism that the author espouses and the fundamentalist “literalist”...
Socrates, Remy, and the Solitary Contemplation of Beauty
In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates is shown to be very strange. In an episode related by Alcibiades, Socrates is said to have stood all day and night in an army camp—with the other soldiers lying down watching him—considering something. (Near the...
Practices and the New Ecclesiology
Focusing on the practices of the church is all the rage these days. Professor Smith’s excellent and thought provoking book is only the latest volley in a long list of theologians attempting to reorient the center of Christianity away from...
A Word about Church Architecture
Christopher Benson and Matthew Milliner have been doing the Lord’s work over at Evangel in agitating for the recovery of a non-pragmatic understanding of church architecture. Of course, they’re swimming up stream among us evangelicals: one whole wing of our...