By: rhbaker275 on February 22, 2015
It is a well know statistic that a large majority of the congregations in North America are plateaued and many are in decline. Plateau is defined as “little or no change … relatively stable level or position … a level of attainment or achievement.”[1] I am in my second year as a staff pastor in…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on February 21, 2015
Ethiopia, a nation where diversity of religions and cultures was seen as a national threat, has now ensured the equal rights of all religions before the law. As a result, Protestant Christian churches in the urban settings received acceptance, whereas in regional settings Protestant minorities are usually excluded from social and economic life. In spite…
By: Michael Badriaki on February 21, 2015
Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age is a remarkable and ambitious study which explores the world of religions dating back to the 1500 and they coexist in the present times for both adherents of faith and non-believers. With the ongoing discussions of religious affairs in the media and the swelling realities of wars surrounded by…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on February 20, 2015
Charles Taylor is a god! Well, perhaps I’m being a bit extreme. However upon reading his Magnus Opus entitled A Secular Age, I was once again reminded why I like his writing so much. Like a skilled wordsmith he’s able to take volumes of information and produce a literary treatise that delineates the historical record…
By: Bill Dobrenen on February 20, 2015
Family. The word itself can bring different emotions to different people, depending of their own experience. Why is it that many times children raised in Christian homes end up choosing to leave the sacred and enter a more secular existence? I wonder that myself, especially since I have two grown children who have experienced this…
By: Richard Volzke on February 20, 2015
“Science can purify religion from error and superstition;
religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish….
We need each other to be what we must be, what we are called to be.” (Pope John Paul II) The argument…
By: John Woodward on February 20, 2015
January 3, 1825, Robert Dale Owen bought the entire town of New Harmony, Indiana. His goal was to set up his perfect society based on “the principles of the sciences by which a superior character can be formed…and by which a superfluity of wealth can be created and secured for all without injury of any.”[1](59)…
By: Carol McLaughlin on February 20, 2015
We seem to be in an “age” where people give up something for a year or they do something for a year. In our recent past this has included a year of living biblically, a year of living like Jesus, and a year of biblical womanhood.[1] A recent incarnation of this “one-year” application was implemented…
By: Travis Biglow on February 20, 2015
Bebbington has a quad too! February 19, 15 It was very interesting to read about the history of the Evangelical movement in Britain in the midst of some of the prevailing leaders of Protestantism, Methodism, Lutherism, and other movements. In the middle of this our (I will make it personal) Evangelical heritage was…
By: Dawnel Volzke on February 20, 2015
Evangelicalism David Bebbington’s book, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, reviews the history of the evangelical movement in Britain from the 1700’s through the 1980s. Prominent evangelicals that have influenced the movement throughout history include John Welsey, William Wilberforce, and Lord Shaftesbury. I’ve collided with these historic figures as I’ve been educated in my faith throughout my…
By: Brian Yost on February 19, 2015
I recently spoke in a small Northern-Michigan city. While driving out of town, I passed an interesting sight; both sides of the road were lined with Evangelical churches. They were across the road from each other and next door to each other. It was almost a comical site. It reminded me of the way fast…
By: Liz Linssen on February 19, 2015
“…the salient feature of the modern cosmic imaginary is not that it has fostered materialism, or enabled people to recover a spiritual outlook beyond materialism, to return as it were to religion, though it has done both these things. But the most important fact about it which is relevant to our enquiry here is that…
By: Nick Martineau on February 19, 2015
I always knew evangelicals were a strange group. DW Bebbington’s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s just affirmed it. I enjoy history and Bebbington does a great job explaining core beliefs Evangelicals can unite around. Bebbington also does a good job explaining how we are different and have morphed throughout…
By: Jon Spellman on February 19, 2015
Where to begin? When attempting to digest and assimilate such a grand work as Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s by David Bebbington, the oft-repeated phrase “drinking from the firehose” comes immediately to mind. A history work of this magnitude could easily provide the primary text for an entire…
By: Deve Persad on February 19, 2015
“In our day the church building was used a lot as well.” That’s part of the conversation that I had with a couple last evening. They were visiting at an event we were holding in partnership with another local organization to help promote literacy among children in our community. This very kind lady said she…
By: Ashley Goad on February 19, 2015
(I am typing this blog on my iPhone with two thumbs, as I know we will not be to a wireless signal anytime soon. Please forgive my abrupt thoughts or crazy assumptions. I’m also typing this while on a 26-hour train ride from Moscow to Ekaterinburg! Don’t you want to travel with me??) The past…
By: Phillip Struckmeyer on February 19, 2015
Phil Struckmeyer, in his book, “Evangelicalism in Post-Modern Society: A History from the 1990’s to the 2030’s”, writes of how the new Evangelicalism version of Protestant Evangelicalism was created by Globalization. From the philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, and politics of the day, Struckmeyer tells of the radical moulding and remoulding that took place in the…
By: Mary Pandiani on February 19, 2015
In light of Still Alice, a movie of a young woman (50 years old, it’s all relative) recognizing that she’s moving into Alzheimers, I’m concerned that I’m losing my mind. I bought two of the same book, one paperback “Evangelicalism in Modern Britain” and one Kindle version. Why? I don’t know. Thus, I begin my…
By: Dave Young on February 18, 2015
I enjoy reading about Christian history, even this recent history: “Evangelicalism in modern Britain, a history from the 1730 – 1980s”. It provides a context to the church today, and lessons to be learned. I jumped in with an open mind reading the characteristics of Evangelicalism in chapter one, and I was hooked – “Yep,…
By: rhbaker275 on February 15, 2015
I don’t recall the exact year, somewhere in the 1950s, there was a campaign to take pride in our country. As a child I recall the promotions, with public incentives, to do our part to “clean up” the environment. There were road signs everywhere which today might be considered distasteful, and distracting but at the…
