By: Chris Ellis on June 19, 2014
Team of Rivals is an unparalleled and in-depth look at the circumstances and people of Abraham Lincoln’s campaign for the Presidency, the Civil War and his eventual assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Having grown up in the United States school system I felt that I knew Lincoln’s story well enough. Those illusions were destroyed by…
By: Garrick Roegner on June 19, 2014
The United States of America had been through some tough times. However, never has the country been so divided by disparate interests, violence, racism, personal infighting, political conflict, and cynical self-advancement as during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. And for Lincoln this was all within his unionist government, he still also had to deal with…
By: Fred Fay on June 18, 2014
Would you tolerate someone on your team with whom you had vast personality differences? Would you call people into account whom you knew had made verbal attacks on your character and abilities to lead? It seems irreconcilable differences are a good reason for so many who work together to not work together. Often when it…
By: Sharenda Roam on June 11, 2014
Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” paints a captivating picture of Lincoln’s life and the lives of his three rivals for the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Edward Bates. This thorough and detailed book shares the…
By: Phil Smart on June 6, 2014
For a number of years, Paul Harvey was one of the highest rated and most popular radio personalities in America – with over 1,200 stations broadcasting his segments three times a day. He would share a historical story which would leave the listener assuming a certain ending. Then after a commercial break, he would come…
By: Sandy Bils on June 5, 2014
In my doctoral work for on my dissertation on fresh expressions, I often stumble over the term “mixed economy.” It is a term coined by Archbishop Rowan Williams when he referred to fresh expressions and ‘inherited’ forms of church existing alongside each other, within the same denomination, in relationships of mutual respect and support. In…
By: Becky Stanley on June 2, 2014
Over Coffee: A Conversation for Gay Partnership and Conservative Faith by Dave Thompson is a concise and practical book tackling one of the critical conversations confronting the church today; same sex unions and the church’s response. The church at large, for the most part, has ‘agreed to disagree’ on this pertinent issue that has been…
By: Mark Steele on June 1, 2014
The raging issue in the conservative church today is how to respond to the Gay movement. Dave Thompson in his book “Over Coffee” is an excellent attempt to bridge the gap and Thompson has a few new insights on how to bridge the gap. Thompson presents his ideas in the form of a non-threatening conversation…
By: Richard Rhoads on June 1, 2014
Over the past two weeks, I’ve had the privilege of leading a Travelearn study tour throughout Israel and portions of the West Bank. During our time we were able to see, experience and participate in many life changing events. Often, the most change came in areas we would not have expected or from people we…
By: Sam Stephens on May 30, 2014
Over Coffee written in simple conversational style brings to surface the need for a faith based dialogue of a topic that remains quite sensitive to the conservative church. The author Dave Thompson has done remarkably well in his attempt to reduce the distance between differing perspectives and bring them to dialogue. First, there is the…
By: Garrick Roegner on May 30, 2014
Wednesday night from my hotel room in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona, as I read through Team of Rivals (don’t worry this post is not about Team of Rivals), I watched as a 4 hour street battle unfolded below me. Fires lit up the main streets as about 1000 leftist okupas (occupiers) battled the mossa…
By: Sharenda Roam on May 29, 2014
“Over Coffee, “ a book by Dave Thompson, is a fictitional conversation between himself and a pastor regarding a gay church member. The church member desires to be a part of the church and also partnered with his current love interest. In this book Thompson mentions a study by Dr. Alfred Kinsey. The Kinsey Scale…
By: David Toth on May 29, 2014
I appreciated Dave Thompson’s book, Over Coffee, for pressing the importance of dialogue when engaging others with different points of view or with those who are in various stages of position development. However, I was disappointed that it was a fictional story. I imagine it would not be difficult to find pastors who would be…
By: Chris Ellis on May 29, 2014
For Baptists, my church is quite progressive. Among other thing, we’ve ordained women since the 70’s, and we fought for civil rights in the 50’s. We don’t take all of scripture literally, though we do take it seriously (to be honest we’re progressive for Baptists, but conservative for the rest of Christianity). It’s these kinds…
By: Fred Fay on May 29, 2014
This will be my second blog on David Thompson. I have met him twice for conversations about gay couples and the church’s response. Since then, I have read his short book called Over Coffee in which he has a conversation on this subject. He converses with a pastoral character composed of many conversations he has…
By: Phil Smart on May 27, 2014
Michael Sam, Jason Collins, Brittney Grinner and Robbie Rogers – athletes who “came out” in the most difficult environment, professional sports; football, basketball and soccer respectively. The conversation has begun in one of the last bastions of heterosexual life – ESPN. But the church can even become a more hostile environment. America is becoming more…
By: Sandy Bils on May 26, 2014
Beginning of this year Thomas Hitzlsperger, a famous former football player from Germany came out as gay and generated intense media interest. In Germany, as in many other countries, soccer players have been very cautious about sharing information about their private life. Hitzlsperger came out in an interview with the newspaper ZEIT. In the conversation…
By: Sam Stephens on May 19, 2014
For years, I have desired to learn Spanish, and then I have wanted to improve my guitar playing skills and I have wanted to learn to fly … and a hundred other things. I have started on a couple of the above on several occasions, never getting any farther than the first few steps or…
By: Mark Steele on May 19, 2014
Most people I talk to have some form of a bucket list. A bucket list are those life time goals most want to complete before they die. The concept was popularized by the movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman called The Bucket List. The bucket list can be goals like learning a new language,…
By: Sandy Bils on May 18, 2014
…for God has already approved what you do. (Ecc 9:7) I was always bothered by the fact, that I had no traditional knowledge passed over by the region I come from in Germany that had something to do with lucullan knowledge and the traditional foods and drinks from there. If you’re from Bavaria, you know…
