I have always been a fan of Christmas. More recently, I have come to realize that I love Advent almost as much. It is a season to prepare and a time to wait. It is when our hearts and minds, ears and voices can set the stage for the incredible crescendo of God’s incarnation. This year, I have set out to do a weekly reflection piece that follows the lectionary readings for each Sunday in Advent and included Christ the King as well. I hope they help add some thoughtfulness to your Advent and Christmas this year.
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As I started to take my hobby of bird photography more seriously, my goal became to see and identify specific birds. I have mentioned elsewhere that I do think it is wise to go for a bird walk with a specific expectation in mind or you may end up rather disappointed. This does not mean,…
There are various things we could talk about on Resurrection Sunday. We could lay out the minimal facts arguments for the resurrection and see how it is the most logical explanation for what happened that first Easter Morning. That would be informative maybe even interesting.
I want to pick up from my last post and consider an implication and approach to ecclesiology that differs somewhat from what is often presented. As I continue to wrestle with questions about the purpose and function of the local church, my conviction is that one of the reasons it exists is to make the…
Pete Ward’s Introducing Practical Theology: Mission, Ministry, and the Life of the Church presents an overall framework that practical theology is “a kind of theology that takes seriously both practice and theology.”[1] But this is offered less as a definition but more as a “rule of thumb” that shapes his inquiry process. Ward allows this…
There is no better time to reflect and re-tell the Christmas story than on Christmas Eve. The story doesn’t change, we might notice or highlight different aspects but it is the same story. I heard a pastor say that the story doesn’t change but the sermon must- I think we all agree. Tonight, we had…
I spend a lot of time thinking about ecclesiology and how it relates to church practice in this post-Christian era. Beyond this, how is our praxis of church shaped by our culture rather than our praxis of culture being shaped by our ecclesiology? I keep asking myself what it means to be a faithful church…