Billy Graham: ‘My Heart Aches for America’
New Letter Addresses Concern for Nation's Declining Morality
In a new prayer letter Billy Graham writes: "My heart aches for America and its deceived people. The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance."
Defining Religious Liberty Down
Say what you really think: that the exercise of our religion threatens all that’s good and decent
The words “freedom of belief” do not appear in the First Amendment. Nor do the words “freedom of worship.” Instead, the Bill of Rights guarantees Americans something that its authors called “the free exercise” of religion.
Why we severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention
One day we looked around and saw that the SBC had left those Baptist distinctives in the dust. A long time ago.
Despite our long-standing ties to the Southern Baptist Convention, Calvary has for some time been at odds with many of the policies and public positions of the SBC. There have been many specific issues, like a rejection of the ordination of women, for example, over which we disagreed. But increasingly these differences became more foundational.
Reflections on a Curious Book
“The Decline of African American Theology,” by Thabiti Anyabwile
As I read Thabiti’s book there was something that I was feeling that I couldn’t immediately put words to, and then it hit me. Thabiti, a black man himself, writes of the black church and culture as if he was a visitor to a land he’d never been to before. Granted his work is historical by nature, but it comes across as if it’s written by an outsider.
Strait’s Rules for Living Well
OK, so I’m not Leroy Jethro Gibbs….but, I, too, have a set of rules to govern my life
Pride is the single most destructive force on Earth. It blinds us, isolates us, and calcifies us. Jesus died for messed up, broken, selfish, incomplete people. Me, you, everybody. No exceptions.
‘Well-ordered souls’
Atheist notes atheism's failings, Christianity's wisdom
Atheism, he suggests, fails in providing real community, education, and perspective. It does not foster kindness or tenderness. It produces pessimism and fails to create a true appreciation of art, architecture, and important institutions
The Church In Our Time: Nurturing Congregations of Faithful Presence (Part 3)
Recovering Theological Foundations - The Enduring Goodness of Creation
And while in the pietist perspective the meaning of the material aspects of creation is variously interpreted—ranging from a useful backdrop to redemption to an obstacle to it—it remains universally the case that these material aspects have no fundamental role in God’s larger redemptive purposes. That this is so may be seen in several widespread expressions of pietism. First, we see it in pietistic preaching, which fails to positively address larger social or material concerns.
How Capitalism is Killing Liberal Christianity
The future of Christianity in America depends on at least one group not sticking its head in the sand for much longer.
But for the message to be compelling, it must also be clear. Their challenge is in communicating an identity rooted not in some watered-down Christianity that mimics social progressivism, but rather a holistic, historic, and even uncomfortable Gospel that keeps the redemptive work of Jesus radically at the center.
Blessed Self-Forgetfulness
True growth happens when we take our eyes off ourselves.
Maturity is not becoming stronger and stronger, more and more competent. Christian growth is marked by a growing realization of just how weak and incompetent we are, and how strong and competent Jesus is on our behalf. Spiritual maturity is not our growing independence. Rather, it's our growing dependence on Christ. Remember, the apostle Paul referred to himself as the "least of all the saints" (Eph. 3:8) and the "chief of sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15), and this was at the end of his life!
Pew Poll: Romney may see an evangelical ‘enthusiasm gap’
One in four white evangelicals say they are uncomfortable with Romney's Mormonism
Many social conservatives warned during the GOP primary that Romney would struggle to spark evangelical enthusiasm. Fewer conservative Christians would volunteer to canvass neighborhoods, donate money or plan rallies, they said.