By: Chris Pritchett on November 30, 2017
At John Knox Church, I have the privilege of leading a staff of 7 ministry directors and another pastor, and we meet once a week for a couple hours, for prayer, formation, and work. A couple years ago we read and discussed this book together as a staff. Some of the staff members have formal…
By: Lynda Gittens on November 30, 2017
Pentecostals were referred to during my times as ‘holiness’ people. They played loud guitars and drums while jumping and dancing around. They had to be able to speak in tongues and stayed in the church for hours. At least that is what we were told. My first experience with the holiness church was at the…
By: Katy Drage Lines on November 30, 2017
Have I shared this story before? If so, it bears repeating because it is one of my favorites from our time in Turkana. It goes something like this: While chatting with Turkana church leaders about New Testament miracles, Kip mentioned Jesus and his early followers raising people from the dead. But that doesn’t seem to…
By: Dan Kreiss on November 30, 2017
It would be foolish to deny the need for a well-established theology lest the faithful prove themselves to be nothing more than “….children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.” (Ephesians 4:14 NRSV) While few may claim the title of ‘Theologian’ for themselves,…
By: Jean Ollis on November 30, 2017
I am a theologian! Or at least that’s what Grenz and Olson will try to convince the reader of in Who Needs Theology. “Anyone who reflects on life’s ultimate questions – including questions about God and our relationship with God – is a theologian.”[1] Most reviewers found the text to be a worthwhile, albeit a…
By: Greg on November 30, 2017
I would be so happy if I was never born so I would not have to face all the suffering, disappointment and trials that come with this life. Anti-natalist[1] philosopher David Benatar argues life would be better if we were not born and it is our duty to not bring any children into this world.…
By: Jennifer Williamson on November 30, 2017
In their book Who Needs Theology?: An Invitation to the Study of God, Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson explain that contextual theology is constructed by “bringing our understanding of Scripture, our cognizance of our heritage, and our reading of our cultural context into a creative trialogue.”[1] All three have a voice, though not…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on November 29, 2017
Grenz and Olson’s book, Who Needs Theology?: An Invitation to the Study of God, was an interesting read. I like the fact that they are attempting to demystify this concept of theology and help the average Christian realize that they are more of a theologian than they realize. The authors say they “want to close…
By: Jim Sabella on November 28, 2017
At the very beginning of Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement authors Miller and Yamamori state: “Pentecostalism is not simply a set of beliefs; it’s an experience.”[1] In this one sentence they sum up the whole of the book and in many ways, the reason for the growth of the Pentecostal movement,…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on November 28, 2017
“For Pentecostals, worship provides the opportunity to experience an alternative reality. It is a moment when mind and body can potentially connect; it is a space in which worshippers imagine impossible possibilities; it is a time when they are filled with new hope and desire for a better world.”[1] I have spent much of my…
By: Mary Walker on November 28, 2017
Pentecostals have begun to model their behavior after a Jesus who both preached about the coming kingdom and healed people and ministered to their social needs.[1] Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori were having dinner at a restaurant in the Philippines when a ‘marriage made in Heaven occurred’. Miller who had written on fast-growing, non-mainline…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on November 27, 2017
To be truthful, I cringed just reading the title of this book: Global Pentecostalism. It is my humble opinion, we need to stop compartmentalizing Christians with labels like “Pentecostal” and “conservative” and start seeing each Christian as a valuable member of the body. As Christians, we are all in need of the transforming power of…
By: Stu Cocanougher on November 26, 2017
As someone who regularly interacts with missionaries, studies missiology, and leads outreach ministries in my own city, I have witnessed the development of a new type of strategy for both overseas missions and local church work. Before discussing this new strategy, let me first address some of the strategies that evangelical Protestants have employed: …
By: Trisha Welstad on November 18, 2017
From the time children are small parents tell them, “You can be anything if you put your mind to it,” in an attempt to encourage them to be imaginative and to pursue their dreams. Children’s books such as Snoopy’s, “You Can Be Anything” reinforce this belief. Yet there’s a myth hidden in this pop culture…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on November 17, 2017
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”[1] – Winston Churchill How often do we as leaders deal with the reality of failure? To achieve success failure is inevitable. While many leaders know this is true there remains a challenge as to how to deal…
By: Kyle Chalko on November 17, 2017
Anthony Elliott in his book Contemporary Social Theories covers the whole spectrum of sociological models for approaching life. Perhaps one way to explain Social Theories is to re-label it as “world views”. It is the lens in which one sees the world, but then more than that it is the way in which one approaches…
By: Kristin Hamilton on November 16, 2017
“The fundamental rules that have governed how relationships work are being rewritten, because of easy, no-cost information sharing.” – Charlene Li[1] Relationships are changing as quickly as technology is evolving. In the past decade, the meaning of the word “friend” has shifted, “messaging” now means several different things, and no one could ever have predicted…
By: Jean Ollis on November 16, 2017
Anthony Elliott’s text, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction is comprehensive and easy to navigate. He highlights multiple theories in this second edition, and challenges the reader to critically engage in understanding societal theories of change in “contemporary social life”.[1] Because it’s intended to be used as a textbook (and the cost reflects that), very few…
By: Chip Stapleton on November 16, 2017
This week we have been reading Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead by Charlene Li,. Open Leadership is a very popular business leadership book that is, ostensibly about how to integrate the burgeoning world of social media successfully into your business and into the way you lead in your company, in a…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on November 16, 2017
Although Anthony Elliott covered a huge span of social theory in his book, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, I will be focusing on the section that is closely linked to my topic of research…Feminism and Post-Feminist Theory. It was fascinating to learn about the origins of feminism and how it has been shaped and how…
