By: Kyle Chalko on April 11, 2018
Leadership Pain by Samuel R. Chand immediately became one of my favorite reads of this semester, partly because it was a book genre I was most familiar with. A straightforward leadership book, with equal parts inspiration, principles, and application. The thesis of Chand’s Leadership Pain is simple, “Growth=Change, Change=Loss, and Loss=Pain. Therefore Growth=Pain”[1] Such a…
By: Jay Forseth on April 10, 2018
One of my first bosses said to me, “Only the pioneers get the arrows.” Little did I know what that meant, but I now see how people may substitute the word pioneers with “leaders”. Or maybe also, “Pastors”. My first year of pastoring, I visited a retreat center for Pastors outside of Bozeman, Montana. I…
By: Jean Ollis on April 7, 2018
Jonathan Haidt’s text, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion is a societally relevant and thought provoking read. His text is also highly controversial “he’s at his worst, his cringe-inducing worst, when he tries to be polemical. He succumbs to his most embarrassingly hypocritical impulses in what are transparently intended…
By: Trisha Welstad on April 6, 2018
A few years ago I took a seminar from a friend of mine who owns a communication company. The online seminar taught how to deliver a message more effectively. The primary take away was that communicating a message is not just about presenting the facts or a story revealing value. It includes both along with…
By: Kristin Hamilton on April 5, 2018
I feel pretty safe saying that we Christians love our binaries. Good and evil, saved or unsaved, heaven and hell – it’s like we aren’t comfortable unless we can label a situation with a coin of two sides. It’s part of our desire for a tidy spirituality, I think. It’s even better if we can…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on April 5, 2018
In August of 1991 a female hip hop duo Salt-N-Pepa released a song entitled “Let’s talk about sex”. It depicted a story of a woman who was able to get any man that she wanted but was left feeling empty because it was “just sex”. No love, communication and lacked safety. The song addressed to…
By: Shawn Hart on April 5, 2018
I have often struggled with the implication made in Matthew 5:9, which showed Jesus teaching, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God;” mainly because the same Jesus also said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword[1].…
By: Stu Cocanougher on April 5, 2018
Last year I wrote more than one article about prosperity theology. Some of the books that our doctoral cohort has read touched on the subject. These included Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat and Nation of Rebels, Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. …
By: Chip Stapleton on April 5, 2018
[Note: This post was written with very spotty – and much slower than advertised – cruise ship internet, so please excuse errors and the lack of usual visual elements…. I get it, I am definitely not complaining, but it did take 10 minutes just to get the cursor to start typing!] This week our class…
By: Dan Kreiss on April 5, 2018
The polarizing effect of our incessant moralizing is evident all around us. From the most recent US presidential election to the debates over the morality of same-sex marriage. From the disagreements over illegal immigrants and ‘DACA’ status to the food stamp and unemployment benefits programs. Let’s be honest, these strong points of view are even…
By: Mark Petersen on April 5, 2018
If you favour CNN over Fox, or are Anglican rather than Baptist, you might be bewildered by the apparent intransigence of those who believe and vote differently than you do. Jonathan Haidt, in his book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, offers compelling research that begins to unpack how…
By: Dave Watermulder on April 5, 2018
There is a memorable scene from the movie “Good Will Hunting” that takes place in a bar near Harvard University. A beautiful young college student named Skylar comes up to talk to Will Hunting, a young man who is trying to figure out how to use his extraordinary gifts in the larger world. After chatting,…
By: Katy Drage Lines on April 5, 2018
“The Bible is clear on this.” How many times have you heard that statement, or one similar to it? Growing up in a church that took the Bible literally, it was common to hear, “just read the Bible and you’ll understand.” I heard these declarations in light of women preaching, leading communion, or baptizing (we…
By: Jennifer Williamson on April 5, 2018
A few years back I was at a conference for American missionaries serving in France. One of the keynote speakers was the Director of the National Council of French Evangelicals (NCFE) and he was asked to teach about how missionaries could best be of service to the Kingdom of God in France—a large topic to…
By: Mary Walker on April 5, 2018
Affirming persons requires granting them respect, and that includes respect for their autonomy, their relationality, and their well-being.[1] In his book, Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community, Andrew Marin sought to build bridges between the LGBTQ community and fundamentalist Christians. Marin asked open-ended questions in order to start the dialog…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on April 4, 2018
Throughout the ages, Christianity has continually attempted to define marriage, relationships, and God’s role and expectations of both. Within each culture, denomination, and era, what used to be acceptable at one time might not be acceptable today. For instance, polygamy was widely practiced among many of the patriarchs in the Bible but is now considered…
By: Greg on April 4, 2018
“In recent years, cheating has got so out of control that, three years ago, in a small Chinese town in Hubei province, a group of gaokao (University entrance exam) invigilators found themselves under siege as enraged parents and students trapped them in their office and threw rocks at the windows, shouting, “We want fairness! Let…
By: Jim Sabella on April 4, 2018
Allow me to begin this post by stating that I don’t ever remember feeling so uncomfortable writing publically about a particular subject or subjects. This does not mean that I am not willing to engage. On the contrary, engagement is critical for me as a person, leader, student, and Christian. I am an undeterred seeker of…
By: Lynda Gittens on April 4, 2018
http://www.truthfollower.com/2015/08/woman-is-gods-finest-and-beautiful.html Author Adrian Thatcher wrote his book, God, Sex, and Gender: An Introduction, for three reasons. They are: 1. “To introduce students and general readers to the exhilaration of thinking theologically about sex, sexuality, sexual relationships, and gender roles. 2. To introduce students and general readers to a comprehensive and consistent theological understanding of…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on April 4, 2018
First of all, I thought it was interesting and rather bold (and to many, offensive) that the UK version of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion has a cover with a middle finger in place of the “i” in Mind of the title. I guess those Brits can handle…
