In another article, I talked about our new mission statement (“Sharing the Life of Christ”). I’ll be saying more about it later, but first I wanted to answer the obvious question: “Why a mission statement?” Mission statements are infamous wastes of time. People sit around hashing them out, they’re announced with great fanfare, and then, … Continue reading »
Lost and Found in Translation
N.T. Wright, a distinguished New Testament scholar, has an interesting article about the issues involved in translating the Bible. Well worth your time.
Just War: the ACID test
A few weeks ago, U.S. special forces carried out a raid into Abottabad, Pakistan, in the course of which, the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was killed. Earlier this spring, the U.S., as part of NATO, began military operations in support of Libyan rebels. These two events, along with our ongoing operations in Iraq and … Continue reading »
My Sermons Should Be Improving
I liked seeing this in my twitter feed the other day: No matter what you do, your first 200 sermons are going to be terrible. It’s attributed to Tim Keller. If he’s right, then my preaching will be getting better, because I’ve surely passed that number. In fact, I’m coming up fast on 250 sermons.
Communion Table
Take a look at this: it’s a Communion Table! Until today, Desert Hills has had a great wooden box in the front of the sanctuary. I’m sure it looked like a table to the person who built it, but for the rest of us…well, table cloths and squinting were just barely enough to maintain the … Continue reading »
Sharing the Life of Christ
I heartily approve of the mission statement recently adopted by our Session: “Sharing the Life of Christ.” The first reason I like it is that it’s concise. I used to work in big companies that had those horrible mission statements nobody could repeat or even knew existed, half a page of fashionable buzzwords strung together, … Continue reading »
The Seminary Bubble
Via Twitter, I saw a fascinating article on Forbes’ blog about the “Seminary Bubble.” Excerpt: After all, what matters more to the customer, the member: the ability to discuss the relationship between Paul Tillich’s theory of ultimate concern and Karl Barth’s version of neo-orthodoxy in light of the demythologizing textual hermeneutic of Bultman, or the … Continue reading »
Why No Sermon Podcast?
Here’s why there’s not a sermon podcast again this week. See the yellow highlighted region? That yellow portion is the sermon. The microphone was off, or something. I don’t know if it was something I did wrong, or something in the soundbooth. (Occam’s Razor says it was me.) But the past couple of weeks, it’s … Continue reading »
Seventy Times Seven
I stumbled on this video (unofficial/fan) for the David Meese song “Seventy Times Seven.” I haven’t heard the song in 10 years, but the message is evergreen. Hearing the song started me thinking: I believe I have a David Meese album. So I checked, and, yes, I do: three, in fact — but I never … Continue reading »
Members and Attendees
Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.—1 Corinthians 12:27 Are you a member of this church? Would you like to be? Our denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a website where you can find different types of reports by our Research Services arm. If you’ve ever wondered how many Presbyterians … Continue reading »