Worship not performance
In contemporary Christian worship, a distinction is often made between worship that is “really worship” versus “just a performance.” For example, does the music invite authentic congregational...
View ArticleJames KA Smith summarizes the battle of the 21st century
I‘ve just started reading James KA Smith’s new book Imagining the Kingdom. Smith’s basic argument is that our actions are not really based on conscious rational choices but rather on how ritual...
View ArticleJonathan Martin’s Prototype: Salvation as the Restoration of Humanity
It’s a strange and beautiful thing to hear someone preaching your own thoughts in a sermon. That’s what happened for me last summer when I heard Pentecostal preacher Jonathan Martin‘s sermon series...
View ArticleFeminism, sex, and virtue in Margaret Farley’s Just Love
I have been reading Margaret Farley’s Just Love: A Framework for Christian Ethics, the book that got the Vatican in a tizzy over renegade nuns several years ago under the grand inquisitor pope. To be...
View ArticleCan American Christianity be detoxified? (A summary of my first book)
Have we become what Jesus came to stop us from being? Many evangelical Christians in my generation are haunted by this question. The loudest Christian voices today sound too much like the first century...
View ArticleCan Jesus save us from performing? #WorshipNotPerformance
From now until the release of my book How Jesus Saves the World From Us, I’m going to write twelve blog posts covering the themes of my twelve book chapters. My first chapter “Worship Not Performance”...
View ArticleThe 12 scriptures that inspired my book
When I was a Southern Baptist, we used to believe that Methodists didn’t read the Bible at all. What may be shocking to some evangelicals is to discover that even progressive, LGBT-affirming Methodists...
View ArticleIs there a Christianity that isn’t toxic?
Have American Christians become what Jesus came to stop us from being? It’s not an unreasonable question after decades of toxic culture war. Growing up Southern Baptist, I used to think there were two...
View ArticleHow Should White People Handle White Tears?
White feelings can be dangerous for people of color. When a white police officer feels scared and overwhelmed by a black person, he becomes lethally unsafe. When a white woman gets weepy after a...
View ArticleZen and God’s Grace
One consistent part of my spiritual journey for the past twenty years has been my use of Buddhist teachers as conversation partners to help me in my own practice of Christianity. I read two books in...
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