“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” -Mark 12:30-31 Some people like to say that the Great Commandment is really two commandments--- love God, love Others. I don’t like …
Continue reading Three Aspects/Commands in the Great Commandment? Reflections
There are those who might say that being a Baptist and being a lover of Church history is a contradiction. Perhaps the most famous to say this, in essence, was John Henry Newman (1801-1890) when he stated “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” Obviously this observation is autobiographical for Newman …
Continue reading Appreciating Church History as a Baptist (Part One)
For someone who blogs a LOT on Christian missions and Missions Theology I don't really immerse myself that much in the "Missions Scene." There is a pretty good reason for this. My wife is a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) supervisor and we have a pastoral counseling center. I end up doing a fair amount of …
Continue reading Christian Missions Books I am Reading Right Now
Max Warren, 1904-1977, served long as the General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society. He wrote considerably on inter-religious dialogue, and mission theology, among others. He believed in the three-fold task of the missionary. I assume he drew it from the three-fold task of Jesus in Matthew 4:23 "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their …
Continue reading The Cross and the Three-Fold Task of the Missionary
Most real-world "Yes/No" questions have three good answers (in my view): Yes, but... No, but... I don't know, but here are some of my thoughts... For the question above, the correct answer is "No, but..." and that answers fills out into 'No, but it is a helpful tool." Here are a few points in this. …
Continue reading Does Video Communication and the Internet Make International Missions Unnecessary?
This is the final part of a three-part series. to start earlier, you can go to PART ONE or PART TWO. Those of the Abrahamic Faiths have often struggled in their visualization of God. I will not pretend to have expertise of other faiths (including my own). With the Abrahamic Faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) …
Continue reading Reflections on Sci-fi Aliens and the Incarnation (Part 3)
I was at church Sunday. The preacher was doing an explicitly evangelistic sermon. Overall, I thought the message and delivery was solid. However, in the middle of it, he shared an argument that I have heard many times, but never really struck me as particularly compelling. Perhaps it is just me. I will completely paraphrase …
Continue reading Does the “Infinite Offense” Argument Make Sense?
The book “Character Theology: Engaging God through His Cast of Characters” by Tom Steffen and Ray Neu, published 2024, is a book that I highly recommend to missionaries, church leaders, and theologians alike, despite the frank admission that the book is not really written for me. I think I need to explain this. If it …
I have been reading "Character Theology: Engaging God Through His Cast of Characters," by Tom Steffen and Ray Neu. I hope to have a review done in a couple of weeks. However, I was reading a passage that got me thinking: "Recall Charles Hodge’s perspective that the Bible is a “store-house of facts” and “the …
Continue reading What is the Best Way to Teach Theology in Church?
I have heard the question posed to the effect of, "What should we be doing if Christ returns today?" Or sometimes it is worded regarding tomorrow. There seem to be different things that come up. Usually suggestions come along like: We should be REALLY HOLY for the next few hours. We should be rather frantic …
Continue reading But What If Jesus Is Coming Two Millennia From Now?