A Churchless Faith

"From the perspective of someone rethinking their religious faith, the most helpful aspect of the book was the level-voiced and non-judgemental survey work (drawn from Alan Jamieson's doctoral thesis) showing why people stop attending churches. Jamieson develops a model showing why people leave and the summary, surprising to some, is that it's a matter of growth of faith rather than death of faith that makes the majority of leavers go it alone. The key message to the individual? "You're not the first to face this, and you're not on your own".

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The Tithing Dilemma

Thankfully, Jewish theologians know better than their Christian counterparts. They are well aware that only Levites have the right to receive tithe of the people. After all, the Jewish leaders have the Old Testament as their Scripture and that’s what it commands. And since there is no Temple in existence (and consequently no ordained Levites or Priests serving in a Temple), then a major factor in fulfilling the laws of tithing does not exist in our modern world. Read the rest here.

God and Alcohol

Few issues have generated more heated debate among Christians than that of the morality of alcohol consumption. The dispute has generated responses ranging from local educational temperance movements to federal amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Certainly there is evidence of widespread abuse of alcoholic beverages today; this few would deny. Furthermore, the Bible clearly condemns all forms of alcohol abuse, by binding precept and by notorious example. Yet the ethical issue before us is: Does the Bible allow for a righteous consumption of beverage alcohol? The fundamental question is ethical, not cultural or demo-graphical; it requires an answer from a Biblical, not an emotional base. Read the rest here.

Loving the Lost

There are two extremes on the cultural engagement spectrum. At one end there are Christians who are no longer being shaped by the Bible but by their surrounding culture. At the other end are Christians who denounce everything in culture as wrong.

My observation is that reformed evangelical Christians are more likely to fall into the latter. We run in the opposite direction from culture. We create Christian schools, home schools, Christian contemporary music, Christian sports comps, Christian monastic communities (sometimes in the guise of a theological college), Christian political parties and the like. Read the rest here.

A Field Guide To Evangelicals

An inside look at the often quirky world of evangelicals from an insiders perspective. Funny stuff.