On the internet over the past few years, Christian leaders have taken time to voice their opinion about IRS form 4361 (Russell Moore, Gospel Coalition via Justin Taylor, Matt Wittmer and Dave Ramsey have all spoken on the matter). For those unfamiliar, form 4361 is the form that a minister may sign within his first two years of ministry to opt out of Social Security.[1] In order to opt out the minster must sign the...
The whole thing began with an announcement slide in church. “Children’s Ministry needs workers: 3’s room,” it read. “I love preschoolers!” I innocently thought and proceeded to volunteer myself to fill that vacancy at once. Now, three weeks into my commitment to shepherd the three year olds at church I have realized that I know very, very little about how to spiritually shepherd preschoolers. Older kids I get. But my adorable preschool class? I can...
This past weekend, I was out spending time with a friend for her birthday, when a group of ten guys who were part of a bachelor party came and surrounded us. They were actually really nice, respectful guys, and since the night was still young, they were still mostly lucid (with the exception of the soon-to-be-groom). So, I began a friendly dialogue with a few of them. I’m not normally someone who talks to random...
Every once and a while a strange but wonderful happenstance takes place in my office here at the University of Aberdeen. All three of us (myself and two officemates) spontaneously look up from our systematic theology books, economic charts of the Irish economy, and ancient Greek manuscripts to take part in a momentary reprieve from the intense study that will probably someday result in a PhD thesis. And, in a state of mutual recognition of...
In the next five years, we are going to witness this century’s greatest single mutation in the structure of missions. As a result, missions will no longer be viewed as something we simply do overseas, but something we do within groups of unreached peoples, whether those groups are located in Singapore or Los Angeles-Ralph Winter, 1986 Ralph Winter was a visionary. Most remember Winter for his famous address in 1974 at the Congress for World...
Lately I have found myself deeply immersed in some pretty heavy research associated with my PhD thesis. I don’t know about you but I am the kind of person that can and will get lost in something that interests me. I can effectively shut out the entire world when I am “in the zone” (that is if my ADHD isn’t acting up). As I thought about what to post this week I had trouble switching...
Michael Gungor, the lead singer for the Christian band Gungor posted a blog two days ago about the birth of their daughter, Lucette, who they discovered was born with Down Syndrome. It is painfully beautiful. Having a brother born with Down Syndrome, I resonated with much of what he wrote. Michael writes of the shock that hit him and his wife when they were confronted with the news of Lucette having Down Syndrome. He also...
As indicated in my previous post, here, two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a day conference entitled Give War a Chance, which focused on a new defence of Just War theory written by Nigel Biggar. Having not read the book, I found the summary he gave quite helpful. The book begins with a reaction to and defence against four arguments raised against his own proposal of what makes a just war. The...
As my son dipped his tiny toes into the water and set foot on the coarse, wet sand, a sly grin came over his face. “Oh yes, I like this, “ his expression implied. As a novice toddler, he is still unable to walk without a hand to hold. Yet that didn’t stop him from mushing us along, crying, “Go! Go!” He was joyfully leading us on a walk at the water’s edge, where our...
This past weekend was Biola’s Center for Christian Thought’s Conference on Psychology and Spiritual Formation. While I didn’t get to attend the whole conference, I did get a chance to hear from some amazing and brilliant people like James Houston and Bruce Hindmarsh from Regent College, Robert Emmons from UC Davis, Ellen Charry from Princeton Theological Seminary, C. Stephen Evans from Baylor University, James Wilhoit from Wheaton College, and Justin Barrett from Fuller Theological Seminary....
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