Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

I mentioned Allan Bevere's blog a couple of posts ago. Well I'm going to draw attention to one of his posts again, Elements of Good Preaching #3: The Life of Study. Allan makes the point that preachers (one of the comments adds that anyone who desires to grow spiritually) should be constantly reading. And not just the Bible. Preachers should constantly be upgrading their knowledge base by reading from various fields including theology, pastoral ministry, and biblical studies. John Wesley said, I want to know one thing, — the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: For this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri. [A man of one book.] - Preface to Sermons of John Wesley, volume 1. Wesley read the Bible, spoke the Bible, taught the Bible, and lived the Bible the best...

My family always wants to know my Christmas list about this time, so I am sharing it with them. Please don't feel that you have to read it. But it may prove insightful to my psyche. Happy Shopping! Banded collar shirts (XL) Blair.com 19.99-24.99 (Great examples: Microfiber by D'Amante ; Scandia Woods ; Irvine Park ) An Inconvenient Book (Glenn Beck) TV on DVD - Firefly, complete series; Animaniacs; Doctor Who (with actor Tom Baker); Flash; Greatest American Hero season 3; Highlander; Hogan's Heroes season 2;Quincy; Jericho Lace up ropers 11 1/2 Bluetooth phone earpiece (the Jabra BT125 as an example) Bagpipe chanter - Yeah, I'm still hoping Bagpipes - Ummm, not many hits on this either Conversation (book by Stephen Miller) Dremel Workstation Dremel Plunge Router attachment Dremel Shaper/Router table Dremel Router bit set Under Armour shirts (cold weather/hot weather) Nintendo Wii w/ Wii Play and Wii Sports External Hard Drive ( 320-500 GB; 1 TB would be nice ) Movie...

I need a little help. I keep running across a point of view that I can't find any scriptural basis for it. Perhaps you have heard it as well. It goes something like this. "Pastors are held to a higher standard than others." My guess is that somewhere in the history of the earthly church when we created a separate class of clergy, the idea of a higher standard of behavior was imagined. Perhaps it was the self-imposed orders that monastic communities lived by that created a separate standard for ministers. But there is no scriptural basis for a more "holy" standard of living for ministers/pastors/priests that is above all Christians. I don't want to confuse standards of holiness for qualifications for positions. Paul writes to Timothy about the qualifications for elders and deacons. But when we read those passages we read that the life they were to lead was to be exemplary and without room for disgrace. If I read my Bible rightly, this is no less and no more t...

I recommend that anyone who wants to get a very brief, but decent, overview of the life of John Wesley, please go see this post . This is one of the blogs that I frequent. Check out all three videos to get a brief overview of the founder of Methodism. There will be a quiz.

Some of you may be wondering why I would bother putting up a boring story about my families vacation. Reading about someone's vacation is even more boring than looking at their vacation slideshow. I put our vacation story up on the blog for me. It was an exercise in remembering what we did. It is a way to hold on to the memory of the time that we shared as a family. Even the bad times are a part of the memories. But let me go on to say that anyone reading my trip report might take it as a reminder to take time away from your work to create family memories. Pastors are some of the worst about removing themselves from work long enough to have an adequate vacation. But studies are showing that our nation as a whole is not taking time off to be together as families. I remember growing up going to trips with my family. We didn't always get to go to far off places like Disney World or Buffalo. But we did make those trips. Sometimes it was to Dallas to go to Six Flags. But we took the...