When I took a preaching class in seminary, I never expected it to be such a creative launching pad for me. We listened and watched all kinds of preaching and preachers and focused on different, and sometimes novel, ways of communicating both clearly and compellingly. I went on to take another course, with professor Chuck…
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I am one of those tortured-soul types. And this post is an invitation into one of my ongoing struggles. (“Welcome all you suckers to Struggleville” as my friend Bill Mallonee used to sing). The struggle I am writing about here is more than a personal struggle. This is a church struggle. The issue is this:…
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I visited Rydal Mount a few weeks ago, the home of poet William Wordsworth. My father-in-law was visiting us here in England, so we spent a couple of days in “the Lakes” (besides my father-in-law, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were apparently also sighted in the Lake District that week). Rydal Mount sits just on…
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[A new dimension for HR’s new site is a focus on Art, Theology and Culture. Chris Breslin will be leading our forays into the world of music searching for lyrics and tunes that wrestle with the raw realities of life and faith, and sitting down with artists and practitioners who are doing some of the wrestling…] Vito…
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I have preached on a number of hard texts over the years. None harder than the passage I was recently assigned at Kings Church Durham: Revelation 15-16. Seven angels bearing seven plague-bowls emerge from the heavenly tabernacle… and all heaven breaks loose. It is the account of the final series of divine judgment in the…
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Q recently hosted a 2-day, 8-session event in NYC called Q Sessions | Practices with Eugene Peterson. Two of the conversations, “Practicing Sabbath” and “Immersed in Scripture” are available here. I highly recommend checking these out. (I admit having a penchant for Eugene Peterson’s thinking). In the “Immersed in Scripture” session, Peterson encourages us not…
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“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (James 3:1) After almost a decade of pastoral ministry, I am now firmly ensconced within the academic world, getting my feet wet in a New Testament doctoral program. Being situated quite deeply within…
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