November 8, 1923 – The Beer Hall Putsch in Munich November 8, 1937 – The “Eternal Jew” exhibition opens (also in Munich) It’s an important week for Nazi-related anniversaries. I’ve blogged earlier about the Putsch (on the 16th anniversary of which — November 8, 1939 — Georg Elser failed in his attempt to assassinate Hitler). … More This Day in History: The Worst of Sinners
Last week I mentioned that I was preparing to preach a sermon for the first time, at Salem Covenant Church of New Brighton, MN on All Saints’ Sunday. Despite my fears, it seemed to go well yesterday, and I thought I’d post my text in case anyone who wasn’t there was interested in reading it. … More A Stretched People
Here Twenty-five hours and counting until I preach my first sermon, on Revelation 7:9-17. I piggybacked on the arguments of two much more gifted scholars: first, Roger Olson’s lament that some Christian colleges borrow liberally from a business model led me again to revisit the history of Bethel University and the educational philosophy of its … More That Was The Week That Was
Here at Bethel we’re going through the early stages of a master campus plan, and one of the first things our lead consultant told us Wednesday was that we need to get past the self-effacing reserve that comes with our Swedish, Midwestern, “pietistic” (he thought to add, to my joy and irritation) heritage and engage … More Some Blatant Self-Promotion
This hasn’t been the kind of blog where posts often consist of extended quotations from other blogs framed by some brief comments of my own. But today I’ll break with that pattern, since (a) sermon prep (still can’t believe I’m writing those words) is proving a welcome but time-consuming distraction from blogging, and (b) John … More History and Civic Virtue
The other day Roger Olson asked (rhetorically) whether Christian organizations should adopt a business model. (Hint: the answer isn’t yes.) He was chiefly concerned with the two types of Christian organizations with which he (and I) mostly interact: colleges and churches. I’ll leave alone his comments about churches, not because I disagree with him that … More Christian Colleges as Businesses
The three most frightening moments in my life, in descending order: 3. The breath that precedes the first word of every single lecture I’ve ever given. 2. The half-second between the end of me asking, “Will you marry me?” and my wife answering, “Of course.” 1. Every single second between now and approximately 9:00am CST … More The Fear of Preaching
Happy Reformation Day, everyone! My friend Sam and I made this video for Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture class several years ago. (The words are by a Lutheran pastor from Iowa.) Remarkably, it’s now been seen well over 120,000 times on YouTube, and it never fails that we run into or hear from excited students … More This Day in History: “Papal Bulls, Indulgences, and Transubstantiation!”
Last week here at The Pietist Schoolman and elsewhere: Here Why the Evangelical Covenant Church has typically viewed activities like packing meals for hungry children in Africa as going hand in hand with conversionism, biblicism, and other hallmarks of evangelicalism No This Week in History but one day in the United Nations’ history brought to … More That Was The Week That Was
One of these days I’m going to have to write a series trying to explain what the Evangelical Covenant Church is. My denomination is a small one (fewer than 200,000 members in the US), hard to understand if you didn’t grow up in it, and yet growing fast. (More than half the current denominational membership … More Feed My Starving Children
The Pietist Schoolman 