DLGP

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives: Crafting Ministry in an Interconnected World

Category: Uncategorized

Faithfulness in a Changing World

By: on April 18, 2015

Faithful Living in a Changing World April 17, 15 As I get older and older the ability to remain faithful to God is always a challenge. It takes a lot to stand up in society now and stand on the word of God. In To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity…

6 responses

Understanding Our Faith

By: on April 18, 2015

I must honestly admit that when it comes to the philosophical side of Christianity, I sometimes have trouble contemplating and fitting it into my Christian context. This being said, I did find chapter 38, “The Devil and All His Works”, intriguing. Raeper and Edwards explore the way that modern culture views Satan. The authors state…

10 responses

Vanity. All is Vanity.

By: on April 18, 2015

Reading through this week’s book, A Brief Guide To Ideas By Raeper and Edwards I was reminded of two things. First, it left me in awe of God’s sovereignty. This book is a brief walk through the history of thought from the Ancient Greeks to today. This walk left me in awe in the sense…

8 responses

The Big Questions

By: on April 18, 2015

I teach a class called Faith, Living, and Learning. One of the assignments in the class is called “The Big Questions.” It is an assignment that includes both a team presentation and an individual paper. The teams (usually groups of four or five students) are to come up with what they think are important questions…

11 responses

An Entrepreneurial Worldview

By: on April 17, 2015

I was somewhat captivated by the answer to the question raised by the publisher in the abstract to A Brief Guide to Ideas by William Raeper and Linda Smith. The question is simple enough, “Philosophy—Dry and remote?”[1] It is obviously a rhetorical question; after all, there is the expectation that the answer is, “Yes! Philosophy…

12 responses

Just Do Your Job

By: on April 17, 2015

“Let us assume the best of intentions. Christians today— of whatever stripe— sincerely want to engage the world for good. As we have seen, though, Christians have embraced strategies that are, by design, incapable of bringing about the ends to which they aspire.”1 This statement gives voice to a nagging concern I have had a…

13 responses

Does the gospel work?

By: on April 17, 2015

While visiting the beautiful city in Oregon, I was asked to address the above question. My answer is YES! The gospel works when people experience the power of the love of Christ and redemption (Romans 1:16). The pastor and friend with whom I was serving has been teaching his congregation through a particular book in…

10 responses

So Many Thoughts

By: on April 17, 2015

All semester I have been looking at this book, sitting on my shelf, thinking to myself, “That looks like fun.” In just writing that, I confess that there is a bit of a nerd in my soul. (And there I just used that word “soul”. What is the soul anyway? But I digress …) Raeper…

15 responses

faith and reason

By: on April 17, 2015

A couple years ago, I attended a baptism ceremony of twelve new believers who came to follow Jesus through our ministry in my country. These new believers attended confirmation class for a month at their new local faith community and were excited to celebrate their baptism. However, before their baptism takes place, the preacher shared…

13 responses

Ideas & Questions

By: on April 17, 2015

Have you ever gone to a movie based upon the title only to discover the title doesn’t quite match what you thought you would be seeing? Have you ever picked up a novel based on the cover design only to discover the story exceeded your anticipation? Have you ever been intrigued with ideas, where they…

14 responses

Shalom

By: on April 17, 2015

“To be Christian is to be obliged to engage the world, pursuing God’s restorative purposes over all of life, individual and corporate, public and private. This is the mandate of creation.”[1] How to change the word is a question that man has been trying to answer since the time of Adam and Eve. Hunter, in…

10 responses

Let us Think

By: on April 16, 2015

To think is to reflect, contemplate and then assimilate those reflections and contemplations into some form or fashion of an idea. Yet It seems to me that the average man or woman does not take the time to think, reflect, or contemplate much of anything. I have passed by restaurant tables (and circles in the church…

5 responses

Daydream Believer

By: on April 16, 2015

I love questions. I ask questions all the time. Whether it’s with my best friend, or with the pastor next-door, or if we’re on a mission trip, I always have a bag full of questions. I ask questions about favorite vacations, or the time you did something you never thought you’d do, or maybe the…

9 responses

In Thinking about Critical Thinking

By: on April 16, 2015

Early on in our DMin program, Jason proclaimed that we would become better critical thinkers.  As critical thinkers, we have the capacity to understand the obvious and nuances that books, lectures, sermons, and research provide us. James Davison Hunter’s book To Change the World, ironic and provocative at the same time, speaks to thinking more…

12 responses

Faithful Presence

By: on April 16, 2015

I thoroughly enjoyed James Davison Hunter’s book To Change The World. This is one of those books I’ll be diving more deeply into one day when all my other writing and reading slows down. Whereas last week Douthat was encouraging culture change in his book through getting back to orthodox theological roots. According to Hunter,…

11 responses

What is Truth?

By: on April 16, 2015

“What is truth?” that was the sharp reply given by Pilate, the highest authority in the city, to the prisoner that stood before him, Jesus. Pilate’s inner dilemma and outward declaration reveals a battleground that continues to this day (John 18:28-19:22). In the words of William Raeper and Linda Edwards in their book, A Brief…

9 responses

Sober Judgment

By: on April 16, 2015

Sober Judgment I woke up this morning in the city of Chicago to the headline of a free weekly newspaper: “The people of Chicago (and $26 million) have spoken.”[1] The headline is for an article on Rahm Emanuel’s reelection as the Mayor of Chicago. The article describes the power amassed by Emanuel that allowed him…

14 responses

The Freedom to Choose

By: on April 16, 2015

“Knowing God is not like knowing an object in the world and so, to know God, human beings have to go beyond the rational through a ‘leap of faith’ into believing something objectively uncertain.” [i] Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Kant, Sartre, Aquinas and many other great men have all spent their lives pondering the great philosophical questions…

6 responses

Life’s Persistent Questions

By: on April 16, 2015

I heard an ad on NPR the other day that confused me. It began by asking if you were tired of all the politics and opinions that you hear on the radio. If so, they had the cure: Listen to Science Friday where, for one hour a week, you could listen to “facts.” Science, they…

7 responses

Method vs. Mission

By: on April 14, 2015

My previous post said “Bad Religion” is my favorite book this term; James Davidson Hunter’s “To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World” is a close second. My affection for Hunter’s book isn’t because I’m wholeheartedly agreeing with his views on culture or cultural change, but because…

7 responses