Posted on May 7th, 2008 | Comment on This | Read This Article »
I am in no way in touch with the latest and greatest in “Christian” music anymore. There was a time when I feel I knew what was going on. I think I drifted away from it due to the declining quality (though maybe I’m just backsliding in morality). There is a bizarre trend that is going on in “Christian” music that I have never seen in any other genre or industry that I know of.
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Posted on May 8th, 2008 | 7 Comments | Read This Article »
Our church recently released a statement of their position regarding women in ministry. The short version is that women are free to hold and act in any form of ministry except the elder position. You can read their extended explanation of the statement here. This is not something I have looked into extensively, but I had a general idea of my beliefs. After reading their explanation, I think I disagree with some of the finer points but I definitely have some problems with the thinking that brought them to the conclusion.
Posted on May 8th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Read This Article »
Women’s role in ministry is a complicated issue so I requested some comments from some people I respect. Read my initial post on this and then read Brent’s response:
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Posted on May 12th, 2008 | Comment on This | Read This Article »
I was listening to a sermon this afternoon on the topic of absolute truth (or Truth if you prefer). The reference was John 18:33-38 which is Jesus’ encounter with Pilate. The speaker said something that caught me off guard. He said that Pilate committed suicide three years after Jesus was crucified. I had never heard that so being my curious self, I investigated.
Pilate does not benefit from a huge amount of ancient evidence outside of the Bible. The first reference we have of him is from the historian Tacitus in one of the popular extra-biblical references to Jesus. It just says that Christ was “put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius.” There was also a stone with Pilate’s name carved in it found in the 60s which is the only archaeological evidence of Pilate with his title in the New Testament (prefect).
Posted on May 14th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Read This Article »
So the Vatican’s chief astronomer recently said that belief in aliens does not contradict faith in God. This is a hilarious discussion. One time Mindy and I got into a big argument because she wouldn’t admit that it is more likely than not that there are aliens. Yes, we actually had this discussion. I think that logically with the size of the universe and the huge number of other planets, you have to say that there is a greater probability that there is life elsewhere than not. I am not saying that there are in fact aliens, but just that the probability of there being other life is greater than the probability of no other life.
I think this is an obvious statement, but we can look at the math.
Posted on May 19th, 2008 | Comment on This | Read This Article »
We just went through the new membership process at our new church. A slightly different process than others I have been a part of. It was less informational and more experiential. The idea was to make church membership feel more personal by sharing stories and testimonies. For a big church I can see the benefit and they did allow for questions if you had any.
My one complaint is that at no point did they clearly lay out the Gospel. I wanted to hear, “This is what is necessary for you to believe for salvation.” But in both the Newcomer Gathering and the Membership class, this was never said.
Posted on May 21st, 2008 | 3 Comments | Read This Article »
Consider this graph which reflects a typical giving and expense cycle for a church. How would you like to be in charge of planning that budget? I read a stat that says most churches plan their budget based on each member giving between 2-3% of their income to the church. And if you’ve ever been involved with church budgeting you have heard the saying “20% of the church gives 80% of the money.” Though many would say 10% gives 90% is more accurate.
Posted on May 28th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Read This Article »
“Duplication for resale prohibited. Duplication for ministry purposes encouraged.” That is the statement on the bottom of a CD of sermons I have from Denton Bible Church. Using other material in churches is nothing new. Bible studies have been passed around and even sold for a while now. When I was working in youth ministry, our youth pastor purchased a curriculum that we used as a guide for what to teach in small groups and on Sundays.
I wonder though if there is a limit for copying material.
