Reflections on Ph.D. Studies
In the spring of 2018, I fulfilled the requirements for my Ph.D. in Theology and Culture. When I walked across the stage that May, it signaled the culmination of more than one season of study. In reality, it marked the completion of a fifteen-year pilgrimage in biblical, theological, and ministerial education.[1] Having that educational experience in the rearview mirror now for a year and a half, I look back with the perspective the...
Maximizing the Midsize Church: An Interview with David Peter
How big is your church? This question has been asked of all pastors by fellow pastors, neighbors, family members, and often on denominational reporting forms (just to name a few instances). I’ve often thought the question itself is consequential and meaningful but not for the reasons people often think. Church size is not just about a pastor or a congregation’s past or present faithfulness. It is also intimately connected to our...
Modern Technology and the Human Future: A Christian Appraisal
(Note: An earlier version of this book review appeared on the Center for the Study of Ethics and Technology website) The world is changing quickly. The nature of the change varies from region to region, but behind these economic, social, and political “accelerations,” to use Thomas Friedman’s term, lays one unified force: modern technology. “Modern automatic machine technologies,” as author and professor Craig Gay states it, are...
What Preachers Can Learn from Tom Brady
(Note: An earlier version of this article appeared at www.fwbtheology.com, the official blog of the Free Will Baptist Commission for Theological Integrity) This past Sunday, for the ninth time in eighteen years as a starting quarterback, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots played in the Super Bowl. He had won five of his previous eight trips to football’s biggest game (and the most watched sporting event in America) before adding a...
Another Reason Why Change Is So Hard
Lately I’ve heard of several churches preparing to interview prospective pastors. I often think that I would like to be a fly on the wall of those interview rooms. I’m fiercely curious about the questions that search committees ask prospective hires and the questions these men ask those committees. Much of what is said—and perhaps more of what is left unsaid or unasked—will have profound implications for the church’s ministry for the...
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