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There's a lot of Christians working hard, or at least told that they should be working hard, to spread the gospel. But, before we go too far we might want to make sure we know what exactly the gospel actually is. Otherwise we end up, as we have, with a lot of people who think the gospel is some variant form of moralistic therapeutic ...

     These days – at least in the “emerging church” subculture and amongst those reacting to the movement – there is a lot of fuss about being missional and incarnational. This is often contrasted with being attractional. All the cool pastors want to be missional, and they like to criticize the mainstream church for being attractional. Well I've come to the conclusion ...

(This is the sermon I gave tonight at our Christmas eve service.)

     This past month during our Sunday night service we have been celebratin...

     This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent. Jessi and I, with our church, are doing our best to observe Advent this year. For the most part this is new for us. One church we attended in Portland, Evergreen Community, did some things for Advent – we had the candle lighting and some prayers – but I guess I wasn't paying much attention. I didn't learn much about what Advent was, other than a preparation for Christmas....

It’s been a while since the Lost series finale – I’ve been busy with a new job and helping to start a new church service. But, since that time I’ve been ruminating on the subjects of inclusivism, universalism, heaven and hell. During the finale many of the Lost meet together in a building that looks very ...

Very soon Jessi and I, with the help of others, will start a church gathering. This is something we’ve been working towards for many years. So, I’m going to share some of my current and developing ideas concerning church.
The Church is a universal body made up of...

Today is Fat Tuesday, better known as Mardi Gras – the festival of flesh. For the last couple of years my wife and I have celebrated the somewhat tamer Australian version, Pancake Tuesday. What is the reason for all this revelry? Ash Wednesday follows, marking the start of Lent – forty days of fasting, going without as a religious exercise. So, Tuesday is the l...

     Our baby girl was born this last Thursday, November the 19th, by way of c-section. This was not our plan. Jessi was induced at 9:00, Wednesday night. She started having contractions around 12:00 a.m. She was in full active labor by 5:00 am and was progressing nicely when the doctor checked her at eight. But, after eight hours of active labor and pain that had nearly overwhelmed her, Jessi hadn’t made any progress. We decided ...

I was reading an article in National Geographic (click the link to read the article) about the world’s present shortage of food –...

Neither Christians, nor Americans have a monopoly on Moralism, but since I am a Christian and an American I will speak from this perspective. I define moralism as an inordinate focus upon behavior – a moralist does not care about motives. A moralist does not care about the spirit of the law, only the letter. A moralist seeks to...