Every Sunday, we’ll be posting articles and links that are saying something important about church, culture, and mission. Here’s what resonated with us this week on the web:
Church & Theology
Sharon Hodde Miller shares her perspective and experience regarding the famous "Billy Graham Rule":
What I struggle with is how these rules can make certain people feel–especially single women, who are already a more vulnerable population in our churches. When applied too bluntly, the rules make single women feel like temptations or seductresses, rather than dignified sisters in Christ.
Brian Zahnd writes about his change of heart on the famous Jonathan Edwards sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God":
Yes, I know Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God well. I had portions of it memorized. It was part of my preacher’s arsenal. But long ago I came to regard evangelism by terrorism as immature, manipulative, and unfaithful to the God revealed in Christ. Today I preach Sinners In the Hands of a Loving God. At some point we have to decide which picture of God we will embrace and project.
Greg Boyd is at ReKnew explaining how some folks misunderstand Open Theism:
The debate is not about the scope and perfection of Gods’ knowledge, for both open theists and classical theists affirm God’s omniscience. God always knows everything. The debate, rather, is about the content of the reality God perfectly knows. It comes down to the question of whether or not possibilities are real.
News & Views
Christena Cleveland shares several video interviews she recently gave on leadership and privilege:
We covered quite a bit of ground, including: How should leaders be thinking about their own privilege? What does humility look like when you’re privileged? How should your social location affect your leadership capacity, particularly when you’re leading cross-culturally? How do we begin to think theologically about privilege and leadership?
David Fitch digs deeper into the particulars of bi-vocational ministry on his blog:
My internet buddy John Starke (I don’t really know John except through internet exchanges of various kind) wrote a post a couple weeks ago (see it HERE) cautioning against bi-vocational pastoring. It was a warning of sorts. Don’t go into bi-vocational ministry or any ministry for that matter without counting the costs. I’m with John on that. But I would add a different caveat. Don’t go into bi-vocational pastoring without a new imaginary for what ministry and church life can be. Don’t enter bi-vocational ministry thinking this is the same old idea of professional ministry just sliced and diced a bit differently. Bi-vocational ministry requires a whole new imaginary.
Mary DeMuth guest posts at Religion News Service about the tragic tendency for churches to prefer perpretrators:
The Church does far better when it acknowledges its sin, living fearlessly and honestly, than when it prefers to show a pretty, unadulterated face to the world. Unfortunately, we have become so enamored with the ministries we have built, forgetting that God Himself builds His Church (and thinking it weighs on our shoulders), that we have lived in depraved fear, preferring the words of perpetrators over the words of those abused. We wrongly believe that we are in the business of reputation management.
Favorite Podcasts
David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw talk "mutual submission" on the Theology On Mission podcast.
Geoff Cook and Josh Packard on the Newsworthy With Norsworthy podcast.
Michele Cushatt on the Seminary Dropout podcast.
On The Missio Blog
Think The “Billy Graham Rule” Would Have Saved Tullian? Think Again…, by Ty Grigg.
Confessions Of A Taiwanese-American White Supremacist In Recovery (Part 1), by Judy Dominick.
Exiled To Discover God At Work In The World And In Us, by Karen Wilk.
#TrulyHuman Conference Audio Has Arrived – Name Your Price For These Amazing Downloads!, by Missio Alliance
Confessions Of A Taiwanese-American White Supremacist In Recovery (Part 2), by Judy Dominick
N.T. Wright & A Renewed Vision Of The Apostle Paul, by Derek Vreeland
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