I propose that the purpose of preaching is not to be defined hierarchically in terms of the preacher pouring out the good news from above to the people below in the way that many claims of the preacher’s authority and purpose have traditionally configured. Instead, in...
A healthy post-evangelical approach to the Bible will demythologize claims to authoritative truthfulness on the part of any and all interpreters, including those who claim the greatest authority in any given context. from After Evangelicalism
Sometimes we cling to our own certitude because we fear admitting we were wrong. Our higher calling is to realign our lives with what we discover to be true, rather than stubbornly holding to perspectives, interpretations, and claims we once thought to be right. from...
There's no substitute for a congregation making the effort to know itself well and to identify what makes it unique. Effective churches know who they are, and they claim their identity and gifts. from Driven
Many otherwise honest and intellectual people will construct a neat bypass around the claim of Jesus to be God. Being people of insight and imagination, they know perfectly well that once to accept such a claim as fact would mean a readjustment of their own purposes...
Christians, we have maintained, are those who through confrontation with death are given new freedom from the sting of death and so a new freedom for voluntary service to others. Surely if this claim has any truth in it, then it is not our own suffering but the...
Switching on the lectern light and clearing his throat, the preacher speaks both the word of tragedy and the word of comedy because they are both of them of the truth and because Jesus speaks them both, blessed be he. The preacher tells the truth by speaking of the...
We are confronted by God's loving claim upon us--the most intense intimacy a human being can experience. To know this intimacy we have only to let go. Instead of relying on our own initiative, where we are in control, we discover that we are participating in what God...
While an adventurous spirituality does not claim to provide scientific data that proves God's ever-transforming power throughout the universe, the vision of God's holy adventure boldly asserts that God is continually working in our personal, planetary, and cosmic...
We are not what we do. We are not what we have. We are not what others think of us. Coming home is claiming the truth. I am the beloved child of a loving Creator. We no longer have to beg for permission from the world to exist.