Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
Church Discipline and Individualism Along with the preaching of God’s word and the administration of the sacraments, church discipline is one of the three marks of the church. Without it, there cannot be a genuine community of Christian disciples. Both Jesus (Matt 15:18-20) and the apostle Paul (I Cor 5:1-13, 2 Thess 3:6-14) clearly teach … Read more
Discipline in the Christian Community The church is the community of Jesus’s disciples. Every community is a group of people who gather around a set of shared values and/or goals. The values and goals of the church are proclaiming the gospel, being conformed to the image of Christ, and advancing God’s Kingdom. At the practical … Read more
“Verily there is that which is more contrary to Christianity, and to the very nature of Christianity, than any heresy, any schism, more contrary than all heresies and all schisms combined, and that is, to play Christianity.” – Soren Kierkegaard Over 50 years ago, sociologist Philip Rief’s insightful work The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses … Read more
At one of my previous churches, the congregation held a lengthy discernment process regarding whether we should change the church’s moral teachings about a particular sin. Throughout this process, the two words that people repeated again and again were the words “welcoming” and “inclusion.” In spite of the fact that no one was able to … Read more
The ethical status of homosexual behavior continues to be one of the most controversial theological issues in the Western Church. Some denominations adopt an “affirming” position and give their blessing on same-sex marriages, other denominations hold firmly to the traditional position, and other denominations divide and split over the issue. I have already discussed the … Read more
According to the New Testament, the church is God’s holy covenant people. It is the family of God. It is the community of Jesus’s disciples. It is the body of Christ. It is the redeemed and renewed humanity, the firstfruits of God’s new creation. When we look at the church as it exists today and … Read more
The past 2,000 years of Church history have been a long and winding road. The early Church tried to do its best to live out the radically countercultural reality of Jesus’s Kingdom in the midst of a hostile culture. But beginning in the fourth century, there was a dramatic transition to Christendom, in which Christianity … Read more
The End of Christendom For many centuries, from the late Roman Empire, through the Middle Ages, and into the Modern period, the political, social, and ecclesial status quo in Western civilization was that of Christendom. All of society was (supposedly) Christian. “Christian” governments used coercion and violence to force everyone to be part of the … Read more
The Importance of Church History There are two reasons it is important to know about Church history. The first reason is so that the Church today can look to the authority of Church tradition to guide us. Even if we are Protestants who believe in “sola scriptura,” we must recognize that the Bible itself is … Read more
Only about half of American Christians attend church every Sunday. About a third attend church irregularly (some as little as a few times a year). And about 15% of American Christians attend church seldom or never.[1]Statistics from the Pew Research Center, https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/attendance-at-religious-services/ Apparently, many American Christians think that going to church is an optional part … Read more