If there is something sad that characterises how we approach difficult or controversial issues in the age of internet memes. It is that the extremes move to center stage and gain all the attention. The pithy, mic-drop sound bite becomes the be all and end all in the debate. Emotion packed retorts push out any …
Category: Christians and Culture
Why Rob Bell is Right
Recently Rob Bell was quoted as saying some rather provocative things about the church, homosexuality, gay marriage, and the irrelevancy of the Bible. As has been the case for the last few years, whenever Bell speaks there is a minor firestorm that erupts. One of the unfortunate aspects of the firestorm is at some important …
A Christian Response to Attacks on the Faith
The terroristic attacks on the French Magazine Charlie Hedbo have once again thrust a simmering conflict into the headlines. The magazine is well-known for its satirical cartoons that are equal opportunity offenders. The Pope, Christianity, Islam, the prophet Mohammed are all fair game for the magazines satire. It is clear that the attack this week …
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A World On Fire
Freedom always comes with a price tag. The sad and tragic fact is the price is often shed blood. My own country's struggle for freedom 240 years ago was a struggle soaked in blood. This morning as I read the news from around the world I see that same struggle happening in country after country. …
Three Cultural Values that are Suffocating Your Faith: Part 2, Comfort.
Safety, comfort, and security. They sound like wonderful, worthy goals that no one would take issue with. After all, who would willingly seek out and embrace their opposite numbers, danger, suffering, and turmoil? Yet in a previous post I began to make the case that these three nearly universally accepted values of the western world …
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Three Cultural Values That are Suffocating Your Faith and You Don’t Even Know It.
Faith in Jesus is a living, breathing thing. Like all living things when healthy it grows and even reproduces. As long as it receives the proper nourishment and right environment it can flourish. But if we cut back on the nourishment or the environment becomes toxic, sickness and even death can result. The scriptures speak …
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Talking to 80 Muslim Students about Jesus
It was the type of opportunity about which one can only dream and pray to come to pass. A group of exchange students from more than two dozen countries visited Northland Church in order to have a 90 minute presentation and Q&A about Christianity and Jesus. They came as part of a program, supported by …
Being a Person of Hospitality
This sermon was preached on November 3-5th at Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood Florida. The link includes the whole worship service which I hope you will find uplifting. The sermon starts at the 39 minute mark. Being a Person of Hospitality We have lost something in our culture. It is the practice of valuing …
Honoring Obama Even When You Disagree With Him: The Sequel
This piece was first posted four years ago today. I find that it is just as relevant now as it was then and can only hope that people who claim to follow Christ will exhibit Christ-like character no matter what their political position may be. It is deeply concerning to me that I see many …
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Christianity’s Fate Is Not Contingent on America
Before you go off on me as being somehow un-American, I was born into a typical Pittsburgh blue-collar family. My Dad's first job was in a coal mine before he worked his way to owning a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership and fulfilling his version of the American dream. My favorite actor always has been and always will …
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The Pain Possibilities of Africa
I am coming to the end of a week in Burundi in Eastern Africa. I don't know how many times I have been to Africa in the last 6 years. It is probably approaching twenty. I do know that I have been to eleven different countries from Egypt to South Africa. Without fail I am …
Obama, the Bible, and Same Sex Marriage
It is impossible to turn on the news today or go to the internet without being confronted by the news of President Obama's statement that he supports the right of same-sex couples to get married. While I can certainly appreciate his compassionate heart for people who feel they are unfairly being denied the possibility of …
Why Forgetting the Church and Just Following Jesus is Not an Option
I am not great at sound-bite theology. You know the kind I am talking about. It's those pithy little sayings, often in 140 characters or less that seem so spiritual, deep, and insightful. They are easy to remember getting passed on time and again until they become accepted as a given, collective, cultural, truism. To …
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Ann Rice Leaves Christianity. Really?
Ann Rice, the one time popularizer of the current vampire genre, has announced that she is leaving Christianity. She recently talked about her decision with Joy Behar. What is fascinating about her announcement is that she still professes a faith in Christ and actually feels that in order to keep following Christ she has to separate herself from organized religion …
The Paparazzi, Facebook, and Our Need to be Known
I have been thinking recently about the seemingly growing mass of people who do things just to be noticed and known. The examples are so numerous that it is hard to decide which ones NOT to mention. Just think on some headlines over the last few months. Remember "Balloon Boy" and his parents scam to …
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