It was announced the other day that, on top of everything else surrounding the Mark Driscoll controversy of the past few years, Mars Hill church is now going to disband. The Mars Hill website stated their plans with the following four points: “(1) All of Mars Hill’s existing church properties will either be sold, or the loans on the individual properties will be assumed by the independent churches, subject to approval by the lender; (2)...
Today is Halloween, the day in which spirits haunt their forgotten remains, men howl at the moon, and millions of children do whatever they can to eat as much candy as possible before their parents take it from them. In the last few years, I’ve heard arguments from numerous people as to how Christians ought to avoid or fully participate in Halloween. While I don’t know if I have a fool-proof answer that will apply to...
I am a creature of habit. I like routine, rhythm, and familiarity. Change and transitions are difficult for me. Sometimes my desire for routine makes me less open to trying new things. I’m also a music elitist, and I think there are certain types of music that are far superior than others. I normally listen to indie rock, acoustic singer-songwriter music, folk, alternative, hardcore/metal, Christian worship music, Disney music, and jazz (which is a pretty...
I recently read through Carl Trueman’s book Fools Rush In Where Monkey’s Fear to Tread: Taking Aim at Everyone. As a Christian who prefers not to be identified with evangelicalism, I have always appreciated Trueman’s thought provoking essays. I was especially struck by the following quote in his book: The American church reflects the culture: ministries built around individuals, around big shots; churches that focus on god-like guru figures, all of them pointing to one...
Last week Deseret News put out an article on how various religious groups would respond to the discovery of life on other planets. It’s an interesting article and you should check it out here. A religious survey was conducted by Prof. David Weintraub who teaches astronomy at Vanderbilt. Among the highlights of his study is the conclusion that Buddhists would be particularly comfortable with the discovery of life on other planets, whereas evangelical Christians would...
The title of this post may be a bit dramatic, but I will share about the series of unfortunate events that happened around Harry Potter this past week. Last Saturday, my sister-in-law had a Harry Potter-themed birthday party. She decorated her house with wizarding decor – complete with broomsticks, a “Have You Seen This Wizard?” sign, different characters, wands, quills, and golden snitches for giveaways. The table was set with a feast of yummy food...
By now, most of us have been thoroughly inundated—thanks, largely in part, to ESPN’s wash-rinse-repeat approach of showing the elevator video—with coverage of the NFL’s domestic violence problem specifically as it relates to Ray Rice. The reaction against Rice was swift, virtually unanimous and severe. Understandably so. The reaction against the NFL could aptly be described with the same aforementioned adjectives. Yet when I thought about how people responded to the NFL, something seemed so off....
Dr. Ken Berding is leading the charge to improve biblical literacy in our culture. Dr. Berding is Professor of New Testament at my alma mater, Biola University (he taught me Greek!). Dr. Berding is passionate about this subject, having written an article in the newest edition of the Biola Magazine entitled, “The Crisis of Biblical Illiteracy.” Other Christian news outlets have reported on this too: The Christian Post, The Blaze. Recently, as well, Berding has...
Last night at our church, we hosted a spoken word open mic night with Micah Bournes, a phenomenal spoken word poet who is well worth your time. You can check him out here. For the event, we planned to have 45 minutes of open mic time where 15 people could share a poem and then Micah would perform some of his work for the latter half of the night. When the night began, we had...
I’ll never forget the moment that I was slapped in the face by the most fashion conscious city in America, Los Angeles. Near the end of my four years there, the city began to wear off on me. I started to “up my game.” Bought some nicer clothes, some flashier shirts, some tighter jeans. The usual. After a good amount of purchases, I thought I’d finally arrived. Then I made the fateful mistake of bringing...
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