February 2012
6 posts
2 tags
Confessions of a (Second) Semester Theology...
God is good! All the time! (Unless you’re a non-Israelite in the herem.)
“The believer, like the lover, has no conclusive proofs to give him complete...”
– Hans Küng, On Being A Christian
“If churches honor veterans and make some kind of link to their faith, it seems...”
– my Old Testament and Deuteronomy professor
Any law, government, institution, or person that treats a human as anything less than human is anti-creational. Like the Pharaoh in Egypt, the economics of want and the politics of power work to undo the ongoing creational process of the creator God who seeks to make whole again.
The church is to be a microcosm of creation as intended; countercultural and wholly alternative to this dominant...
1 tag
finally updated my “about me” and some of the outdated HTML.
January 2012
15 posts
4 tags
graduate thesis idea:
“Greco-Roman Sexual Themes in Arrested Development and the Pauline Epistles.”
“The heart of the Sabbath is to acknowledge a profound relationship between...”
– J.G. McConville, Deuteronomy Commentary
does cynicism have any place in the Gospel story?
I think I’m a pretty funny guy. I try to be at least. I love to make people laugh and unless my friends have been faking it for the last twenty-three years (I’m sure they have more than a few times) I’m at least remotely good at it.
As a small child, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I sincerely answered, “Canadian.”
Because I thought that meant...
“All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one’s heart have a...”
– Cormac McCarthy, The Road
1 tag
Reconciliation in Ezra 1
“Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let...
“I believe; help my unbelief!”
– Mark 9.24
1 tag
“[My mother] taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that...”
– Stephen Colbert, How Many Stephen Colberts Are There?, New York Times Magazine, January 4, 2012
Lament as Worship
For better or worse, this blog has been from the start, mostly a product of life experiences and a response to external forces in my life. Thus, the past month has consisted much about lament. That’s not to be depressing, it’s just the season I found myself in. As I exit this season, this post is aimed to prove that while lament is “sad,” it is anything but depressing (at...
Confessions of a (Second) Semester Theology...
I’m in graduate school with the intent to teach high school Bible (and History and Government) and eventually teach American Religious History at a public university. However, in recent months I have felt a pull towards pastoral ministry — something I meet with great reluctance. Though, there are several other things I would be open to putting this degree to use to:
hospital chaplain
...
“[Worshippers] don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service,...”
– C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm
“We are satisfied that voting does much more harm to the church than dancing...”
– David Lipscomb, Gospel Advocate (1875)
December 2011
15 posts
“For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country (via danikamcclure)
Important Exist Update
I know at least one person semi-consistently reads this waste of internet space through google reader or some other RSS feed so this update is for you.
I decided not to renew my domain name this year. Mostly so godaddy.com would stop emailing me monthly. Exist will continue to exist but its new URL in 2012 will be existtheblog.tumblr.com
Those alien nerds who have been coveting the domain...
A Season of Lament in the Season of Advent
I love Christmas. Say what you want about consumerism, I love doing nice things for the people. I love coming up with something that hopefully puts a smile on their face. It’s fun. I love my family and I love spending time with them. I love reflecting on the miraculous coming of Christ and somehow connecting that with whatever pagan rituals involve sausage balls and gift-giving.
So when I...
1 tag
Developing a Theology of Ministry from Roman... →
I’ve done this in the past and had enough interest that I’ll try it again. I’ve uploaded my term paper for my Theology of Ministry class to Google Documents in .pdf for anyone that is interested. The paper attempts to lay out a theology of ministry based out of a text of my choice, Romans 8.18-25. It includes an exposition of the text and the implications it should have on our...
“The Christian rhetoric of modesty, rather than offering believers an alternative...”
– Her.meneutics: How Modest Is Hottest Is Hurting Christian Women
Porn definitely harms women, but so does “modest is hottest”
Confessions of a First Semester Theology Student:
Our house church works on a four week rotation. One week of family dinner, two weeks of Bible study, and one week of going out and serving. Tonight was a night of serving, as usual we bought a crap-ton of pizza and walked around downtown, finding people to share it with.
But tonight, I didn’t want to go. As a testament to my brokenness, I openly admit that I just wanted to stay in and...
“God knows, however, that our daily dreams are saturated with another, larger,...”
– David Fleer, Preaching: The Big Imagination
“As Christians who live in a wealthy and powerful nation, we must remember that...”
– Lee Camp, Unfinished Reconciliation: Justice, Racism & Churches of Christ
We Christians are incredibly inconsistent with...
WatchJesus Responds to Rick Perry’s “Strong” Ad from DC Pierson
1 tag
“[In the wake of Pentacost] They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and...”
– Acts 2.42-47
“When the Spirit comes, it brings unity and cooperation. When the Spirit leaves, you get disunity, division, individualism. You have to work against culture to do this.” (- Viv Grigg) Imagine an America, a world, where Christians were disciples of Christ and not disciples...
“God alone is God. God who is love, light and life, creates, precedes, enables,...”
– Anabaptist Confession of Tripolar Spirituality
“pain expressed and heard turns to energy, pain not heard and not expressed turns...”
– Walter Breuggemann on lament
November 2011
20 posts
“I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, he is...”
– Tim Tebow, in response to Jake Plummer
As a Florida State alumni, I’ve had my beef with Tim Tebow. And honestly, he still drives me crazy from time to time (ie. his book deal already). But I’m trying to like him more. And for the love of God, can I get an ‘Amen’?
“Growing up the son of a son of a Kentucky tobacco farmer and a former flower...”
– opening paragraph to my Theology of Ministry term paper, in which I base my concept of ministry in the eschatological significance of the ultimate hope for all creation found in Romans 8.18-25 (via passgasinbibleclass)
“I see no good reason why gays and lesbians should be excluded from military...”
– Stanley Hauerwas, Why Gays (as a group) Are Morally Superior to Christians (as a group) (1993)
1 tag
Confessions of a First Semester Theology Student:
if you know who The ButterCream Gang is, our childhoods were eerily similar.
“For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be...”
– Hosea 2.17-20
Still our Baals remain. The false lovers of our technological dependency, our devotion to state, our environmental exploitation, our lust for more, our disdain for enough, our superficial sufficiency, our desire for ease and false satisfaction. Our breach of covenant results in broken...
“We can always come up with “others” that aren’t in the story. We can make the...”
– Dr. York
have I mentioned how blessed I am and what an incredible opportunity it is to work for this man?
“One of the reasons we’re so unlike Jesus is because we work so hard to...”
– Ethos Church, 11.13.11
“the restored still need restoring and the renewed still need renewing.”
Confessions of a First Semester Theology Student:
Sects in the church. Sex in the church. There is a big difference. Conveyed orally you may not be able to distinguish it and it can change the whole dynamic of the conversation.
things to be thankful for: Ethos Church
This is a season of thanksliving and I want to spend the next few weeks focusing on that which I am thankful for - big and small. For starters, I am thankful for the church. Specifically, Ethos Church. By suggestion, I started listening to Dave and Brandon’s sermons through podcasts back in March of this year and as soon as I transplanted to Nashville in August I visited Ethos. I fell in...