This past Sunday I had the privilege of preaching at my local church here in Minneapolis—Mill City Church. We’ve been reading through and preaching through the New Testament this year as a church, which in hindsight feels really appropriate in 2020. In this sermon I tried to provide a concise overview of the main issue in Galatians (Should the Gentile males in Galatia be circumcised?) and how Paul addresses it (Nope!). Summarizing a single text...
N.T. Wright joins The Two Cities podcast for a special interview episode about his upcoming new book, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath (London: SPCK / Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020). His new book is an expansion and development of a short article that he wrote for TIME magazine on March 29th, entitled, “Christianity Offers No Answers About The Coronavirus: It’s Not Supposed To.” In this episode, John Anthony...
In this episode, we discuss what it means to believe the gospel, following up on our previous episode discussing recent debates on the blogosphere about what the gospel is and isn’t (“Talking about the Gospel”). Building upon that previous conversation, Amber Bowen, John Anthony Dunne, and Logan Williams discuss binary thinking that impairs how we conceive of what faith is, and then address more helpful ways beyond that restrictive way of thinking that is more...
How should we define the gospel? Recently, there have been some heated discussions about the nature of the gospel. What should the central identifying feature be? Should it be the legal declaration of Justification by Faith? Or should it be the regal proclamation that Jesus is King? In this episode, Amber Bowen, John Anthony Dunne, Chris Porter, Kris Song, and Logan Williams call into question whether identifying a “center” to the gospel is even helpful...
As the lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 drags on, questions regarding the nature and place of the Eucharist are becoming more and more important. Christians in all traditions are now forced to grapple with the reality that it may be some months before congregations and church families can meet again in person. Churches have had to scramble to figure out how they can keep on meeting, many turning to digital mediums like Zoom or Facebook Live to do so. However, the issue of whether the Eucharist may be celebrated by all members of the congregation in their homes remains hotly debated.
I was able to preach a sermon at Mill City Church (in Northeast Minneapolis), which is the church I call home. My sermon was part of a series on the Minor Prophets called The Books We Don’t Read, referring to the fact that many people in our churches don’t hardly read the minor prophets. My sermon in the series was on the prophet of Amos, specifically looking at the way that injustice is viewed as...
Bethel Seminary, where I have the privilege to serve as assistant professor of New Testament, recently started a brand new podcast called Whole & Holy. The podcast is primarily intended to serve the church, especially pastors and alumni of Bethel Seminary. So far there have been a number of interesting episodes about hiring and firing, children’s ministry, disability ministry, political involvement, Christian leadership, and more. If you’re keen to subscribe, you can find it wherever...
Last week I was given the opportunity to preach at my church during the evening service. I don’t get to preach very often, so when I do, it is always equal parts exciting and terrifying for me. The text I was given was John 7:53-8:11 or the woman caught in adultery. It is one of the better-known stories in the Bible, but sometimes this makes it more difficult to preach. It’s also difficult to preach...
Recently my new article on Ephesians 5.18–21 was published in the Polish Catholic Theological Journal, Biblica et Patristica Thoruniensia. The article is called “Filled with the Spirit: Wine and Worship in Levitical Light (Ephesians 5.18–21).” In this piece I try to make sense of a number of intriguing issues related to Ephesians 5.18–21 in its literary context which, in my opinion, have not been addressed in a fully convincing manner. This piece represents something of a signpost...
The Museum of the Bible recently opened an exhibit entitled, “The Slave Bible: Let the Story be Told.” The centerpiece is a book called, “Parts of the Holy Bible, selected for the use of the Negro Slaves, in the British West-India Islands” published in 1808. Originally published in London in 1807, this book was apparently used to educate British-owned slaves in both reading and religion. The interesting thing about the work is that it features...
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