What’s your starting point?

Much mainline Christian theology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been a response to the problem of evil. For liberal Christian theologians of the mid-twentieth century, two world wars and the Holocaust made any strong notion of divine action unbelievable. Unlike evangelical cessationists, who believe that miracles ceased after the biblical period, liberal theologians,…

Why Aldersgate Renewal Ministries may be the most important thing going in the UMC

Last weekend I attended the national conference of Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, the charismatic renewal movement in United Methodism. If you have never attended an ARM conference, I strongly encourage you to do so. These are the most vibrant, optimistic, and powerful meetings I have ever attended among United Methodists. There is an attitude of peacefulness…

Baseball and the Body of Christ

Leo Durocher once wrote, “Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.” I would add that baseball, like church, involves a community that you have to be a part of in order to gain understanding. To appreciate the beauty of the game of baseball, you have to learn to sit with it. You have to…

Why Churchgoers Must (Really) Change

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2…

A Mainliner Hangs Around with Charismatics

I recently attended Global Awakening’s Voice of the Prophets conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was a gathering of about 1,300 people who believe in and want to learn more about modern day prophecy. Prophecy certainly wasn’t the only gift of the Spirit on display, though prophetic words were abundant. While I have worshipped with many different…

Stigmatization and the Church

At a church-related conference, I heard a presentation on the matter of stigmatization as it relates to people with disabilities. The primary point of the presentation was that we tend to internalize negative perceptions by others, and thereby allow them to control our self-esteem and consequently our behavior. All true enough….Nevertheless, when it comes to…