Want to study about worship with me? OK, that’s a funny way to say it. But from time to time, people ask when and where I’ll be teaching in an academic context, since it is not what I primarily do. Occasionally I teach a seminar or a workshop at conference or university. Those events are listed here. But, now, there are two exciting new academic modules that I’ll be teaching in the 2019-2020 school year. One is for Doctoral students (the basic requirement is a Master’s degree

As 2014 comes to a close, I’m thinking about the books that inspired me, enlightened me, challenged me, and fired my imagination this year. I must add the qualifier, though, that these are not necessarily books that were released in 2014; this was simply the year I read them. Faith and Culture “How (Not) To Be Secular” by James K. A. Smith Eminent Oxford chair of philosophy, Charles Taylor, wrote a tome (900 pages!) on how we got to be the ‘secular age’ that we are (in the We

24/7 Prayer, an amazing movement and ministry led by Pete Greig, has launched their Advent video devotionals. These are wonderful, 3-4 minute videos helping us reflect on the coming of Christ. The theme this year is “When God comes near…” Pete, along with several friends– Daniel Grothe, Andrew Arndt, David Perkins, and more–filmed these short devotionals. I had the privilege of doing three of these videos. The podcast, ranked tops in the UK, can be subscribed to on iTunes her

So, Hillsong declined to publicly declare a position on ‘LGBT issues’. And the internet was awash with opinions. Some shook their heads in disappointment, because, after all, ‘the Bible is clear’. Others smugly remarked that we shouldn’t expect much from this ‘culturally accommodating’ brand of Christianity. I find neither response particularly helpful or accurate. First, the response of certainty: ‘A non-answer is an answer.’ I understand this response, and there is some tru

In Part 1 of this blog series, we said that in order to answer the question of “who the Church is”, we needed to first ask who Jesus is, and then ask what His salvation is. I walked through two examples of how we tend to answer the series of questions– Who is Jesus? What is Salvation? Who is Church? What is Mission?— and then offered an alternate set of answers from what I observe in the Book of Acts. All this is foundational. But it is a paradigm shift. Most of us are not us

What is “Church“? Who is Church for? The lost? The disciple? What are Sundays for? Many pastors jump right to the Great Commission and define “Church” through the lens of a “heaven and hell” crisis. The church invariable gets defined by what it does or what it ought to be doing. But with God, identity precedes activity. Adam and Eve were made in God’s image before they were given a vocation. So, we need to ask what Church is…or more precisely, who Church is. Before we can beg