By: Mike on January 11, 2018
David Bebbington’s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain analyzes history, environment, and culture to show how Britain and English-speaking churches were changed by the evangelical movement. The lasting evangelical themes of this book are Bebbington’s tetralogy of the Bible, cross, conversion, and activism. I see connections between Bebbington’s “lived religion” and the Armor of God (AOG) lived…
By: Katy Drage Lines on January 11, 2018
I begin this post by recognizing it is actually the first of a two part series, reflecting on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. Well, really, this first part is more of a reflection on reflections of Taylor’s work, while I envision the second post to focus more on Taylor’s thesis itself. I hesitate to analyze…
By: Dave Watermulder on January 11, 2018
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, churches of every stripe were getting ready for the big day. The sanctuary was decorated, special services were added, pageants were rehearsed, the choir filled in nicely, and preachers sought to say something meaningful on a night that is called holy. And one of the questions that hung…
By: Lynda Gittens on January 11, 2018
James Smith, How (Not) to be Secular In the Introduction, Author Smith shares several points of views from other secular age authors. For example, Author Julian Barnes, of the book “Nothing to be Frighten of”, has a few quotes: “I don’t believe in God, but I miss him” (5) making reference to his missing…
By: Jim Sabella on January 11, 2018
I own a field guide on mushrooms, one on birds and one on rocks and minerals, but I don’t have one on living in the secular age. How (Not) to be Secular by James K. A. Smith is what its author calls “a field guide” on Taylor’s A Secular Age. [1] While A Secular Age asks…
By: Stu Cocanougher on January 11, 2018
I serve at a multi-staff church in Fort Worth, Texas. One of my roles that I have is to develop evangelism strategies for our church. As I review and evaluate plans, strategies, and programs that have to do with leading people to Christ, a word that often comes up is the word “secular.” This week…
By: Dan Kreiss on January 10, 2018
Recently I passed a local church, you know the type…..or maybe you don’t because you don’t live in the South. (For those of you not from the South or familiar with the full breadth and depth of the term let me help you. The South is not a geographic direction or location but, rather a…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on January 10, 2018
“even as faith endures in our secular age, believing doesn’t come easy. Faith is fraught; confession is haunted by an inescapable sense of its contestability. We don’t believe instead of doubting; we believe while doubting. We’re all Thomas now.”[1] Is this all there is? A question some ponder daily and one that some only reflect…
By: Jay Forseth on January 10, 2018
If Evangelicals are are into conversionism (the belief that lives need to be changed), activism (the expression of the Gospel in effort), biblicism (a particular regard for the Bible), and crucicentrism (a stress on the sacrifice of Christ) [1], then I am one of them! If Evangelicals hang their hats on justification (the forgiving of…
By: Mary Walker on January 10, 2018
If Taylor is right, it seems to suggest that the Christian response to such converts to unbelief is not to have an argument about the data or “evidences” but rather to offer an alternative story that offers a more robust, complex understanding of the Christian faith (p. 77).[1] Coming fresh from our study of…
By: Jennifer Williamson on January 10, 2018
Last summer, as a nod to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, our mission organization offered a workshop series on the Reformation at our Annual Conference. I was invited to participate in a panel discussion representing France—the others on the panel were American missionaries who served in other European countries…Germany, Austria, Greece, Latvia, Romania, etc.…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on January 9, 2018
On a recent trip to California, I went to a Christmas Eve service to a church boasting an impressive 15,000 members and growing. The multiple sites, large facilities, and talented staff were impressive. Sitting in the huge auditorium amongst a throng of people, the pastor’s greeting was confusing as he mentioned he didn’t appreciate the…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on January 8, 2018
Bebbington’s book, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s, was very interesting and informative. It focused on “the four qualities that have been the special marks of Evangelical religion: conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicism, a particular regard…
By: Chris Pritchett on January 4, 2018
In an article published yesterday by Christianity Today, the author, Richard Mouw discusses the recent claim of NY Times columnist, Ross Douthat, who argued that western evangelicalism is heading for a “crackup.” Mouw writes, “The more dramatic gap, as Douthat sees it, is between, on the one hand, the elites—‘evangelical intellectuals and writers, and their…
By: Kyle Chalko on December 8, 2017
Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice: A Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium is an academic’s book about leadership. Many have written about leadership, some of whom have been good authors but not good practitioners, and so unintentionally and perhaps unknowingly they write a theory that does not ever find its place in reality. I think…
By: Trisha Welstad on December 7, 2017
I developed and direct The Leadership Center, a network empowering new leaders and growing local ministries through internships, mentoring and scholarship. This leadership network began when I surveyed the up-and-coming leaders in my own denominational region over a ten-year period and found only two percent were being equipped and placed in positions within the churches…
By: Mark Petersen on December 7, 2017
The weighty tome of the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, weighed down my bag as I boarded my flight to Toronto for my last work trip of the year. Grazing through the articles, I quickly realized my last blog post this year must necessarily focus on a…
By: Greg on December 7, 2017
Gone are the days that we, like in the old science fiction movies, enter and say, “take me to your leader.” In those circumstances the leader is seen as the one that has all the answers and is the ultimate authority. Did this model really exist or was it that we wanted a leader that…
By: Shawn Hart on December 7, 2017
Per 2016, the top 5 highest paid CEOs in America were (via salary and benefits)[1]: Ginni Rometty, IBM $96,764,750 Elon Musk, Tesla $99,744,920 Sundar Pichai, Google $106,502,419 Tim Cook, Apple $150,036,907 Marc Lore, Walmart $236,896,191 In addition to these statistics, the top 3 highest paid Ministers in America were[2]: Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries “According…
By: Mike on December 7, 2017
Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana’s Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice is a rigorous resource and research tool for doctoral leadership students. The authors are Harvard Business School professors who distilled the lessons learned from a centennial leadership meeting of scholars from diverse academic, scientific, and business leadership contexts. Exploring “leadership comprehensively and from many…
