By: Jennifer Williamson on February 28, 2019
I spent last weekend facilitating the second annual Elan retreat—which was actually two parallel retreats for two cohorts of missionaries. Cohort 2 has just begun the first year of the Elan program, which is focused on spiritual formation. Their retreat was a time for learning new ways to connect with God and was aimed at…
By: Chris Pritchett on February 27, 2019
A friend of mine tells the story of a time when he visited a friend who was a jet fighter pilot. The friend took him to where he would do his training in flight simulation. The jet fighter pilot was a master, but still practiced for hours everyday in the flight simulators. They looked like…
By: Mike on February 26, 2019
Jenifer Berger and Keith Johnston’s Simple Habits for Complex Times is a courageous guide-book on how to adapt to change and lead more effectively and efficiently in a progressively chaotic and unpredictable world. Change…change, change, change…change…change, change…, change… (this is not a tax commercial, but you get the point). No! Change is not free, and…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on February 24, 2019
“Miller analyzes how consumer culture commodifies everything, including religious practice, making it impossible to confront it head-on. His discussions on learning the origins of where a consumer product comes from and on embedding religious practices into the traditions from which they are taken are particularly helpful. Miller succeeds in moving the discussion of consumer culture…
By: Shermika Harvey on February 24, 2019
The world is changing before our eyes. Things that were once sacred has become fads changing and evolving with the time. Religion has become a counter product of the newest event or program at the local church. On any given Sunday, people can choose for an array of buffet style Christianity ranging from the traditional…
By: John Muhanji on February 24, 2019
The book by Vincent Miller has been a significant challenge to me as much as it has been a profoundly and theologically structured. What struck me most was part of its title “Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture.” I related this with our Quaker Christian Faith and Practice, and one of the essential…
By: Wallace Kamau on February 23, 2019
Edmund Burke[1], is quoted attributing the triumph of evil to the inaction of good men. For any thing good to happen or for evil to be defeated, it takes a good man to take responsibility to do something to change the situation, rather than being a passive observer. Miller[2]in writing about consumerism, takes the bold…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on February 23, 2019
Is there a way forward? What way will we take? What will be the long-term ramifications? These are questions being asked of denominations today and specifically The United Methodist Church this week at their Special Session of the General Conference. As I research the viability of flourishing denominations in the 21st Century I must consider…
By: Dan Kreiss on February 22, 2019
(Thanks to Huey Louis for the title.) Those of a certain age might remember the anti-drug campaign of the early 80s. The public service announcement begins with a frying pan on a stove top, hot and ready. An egg is cracked and plopped onto the pan resulting in an instant sound of sizzling and popping.…
By: Mary Mims on February 22, 2019
“How do you know about Gucci, Reverend Mims”, one of the youth asked me as he saw the familiar symbol on my sunglasses. “Gucci has been around way before you were born”, I responded. The real question was not how I knew about Gucci as a brand, but how did this 16-year-old, with no job,…
By: Kyle Chalko on February 22, 2019
The Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind by Mark A Noll was an interesting read for me. Mark A. Noll takes the positions that the evangelicals have not been doing enough to lead the way in progressive thought for the world. They have lagged behind the secular and catholic worlds and have rarely produced thought leaders. Noll…
By: Jean Ollis on February 22, 2019
Imagine this…it’s 5:30am, Mountain Standard Time, and I’m up early because of the time change (It’s 7:30am EST at home). I’m staying in an adorable Airbnb in the footballs of the Rocky Mountains – and I have a room with a view – overlooking a lake with the mountains in the distance. The “super snow…
By: Jason Turbeville on February 22, 2019
Mark Noll gives a scathing review of Evangelical intellectualism in his 1994 book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. The first sentence give the reader the tone, ” The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” [1] He goes on to discuss the lack of intellectual integrity within not…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on February 22, 2019
At a funeral I officiated at this week, I told many stories about my special patient Margaret and how she truly touched my life. I noted that she was a bright light while here on earth, even though she had many struggles throughout her life. But I shared that Margaret believed that God’s glory is…
By: Shawn Hart on February 21, 2019
Decisions…decisions! Perhaps “Scandal” is the best title for this book when reviewing this week’s reading, “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind;” after all, Mark Noll seems to enjoy hitting on some of those favorite topics of the modern-day preacher…evangelical or not. The fact is, he hit upon two of my personal favorites; Revelation and Evolution.…
By: Trisha Welstad on February 21, 2019
“The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.”[1] This quote opens the text of Mark Noll’s nearly twenty-year old assessment of evangelicals on their disinterest in and distance from influencing the wider culture with a distinctively Christ-centric intellect. Though there has been much debate about the content…
By: Karen Rouggly on February 21, 2019
We have a nest in our house. Not the kind that birds have, but the thermostat kind. We got it when we moved into this house a little over 4 years ago. What’s cool about a nest thermostat is that you can be wise with your energy consumption, and you get this little green leaf.…
By: Sean Dean on February 21, 2019
In the musical In the Heights the main character is Usnavi, a second-generation immigrant from the Dominican Republic living in Washington Heights in New York City. Over the course of his life he has been told that his goal in life needs to be to move back to the Dominican Republic, because that is home…
By: Mark Petersen on February 21, 2019
In a classic and essential text from 1994, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, evangelical historian Mark Noll writes with candor about the downward spiral of intellectual rigor at work in conservative North American Christianity. He traces the declining arc over centuries, beginning with the Reformation when there was still hope, through the influence of…
By: Jenn Burnett on February 21, 2019
I’m watching with interest the exploration of the identification of ‘toxic-masculinity.’ The term has not yet achieved precise definition, but it has arisen as both an academic and social project aimed at defining traditionally tolerated root beliefs about masculinity that have grown into destructive behavioural patterns. I would argue that a key contributing factor to…
