This week I continued my “With-God Life” series of lectionary devotions (from John 9 to John 11, with psalms, apocalypses, and more in between) and recorded a podcast about teaching sports when COVID-19 has shut down sports. Over at The Anxious Bench, I recommended some virtual field trips for home-bound kids and considered the significance of … More That Was The Week That Was
What does the spread of the coronavirus mean for sports? We started to talk through that big question on this week’s extended spring break episode of The 252. In our first segment, we briefly discussed the postponement of the Olympics, how the absence of sports changes our perception of the passage of time, and Paul … More Wednesday’s Podcast: Sports in the Age of COVID-19
As I’ve been seeking to spend more time with God this month, I’ve often prayed before morning devotions that God would help me see the daily lectionary text with new eyes, that familiar words might take on an unfamiliar meaning. But this morning, as I opened to Colossians 1, I realized right away that those … More The With-God Life: “We have not ceased praying for you”
Yesterday I started thinking out loud about my plans for converting my courses at Bethel University into online offerings. Part one summarized some basic principles I’m trying to follow, then explained my plans for a 100-level gen ed survey. Today: my two 200-level History courses… HIS/POS252L History and Politics of Sports Course description and students: … More How I’m Planning to Teach Online (part 2)
As longtime readers of this blog may recall, I’m not a huge fan of online education. While I’ve taught an online course every summer since 2013, plus a couple of hybrid courses a few years back, I’m still skeptical that that mode of education can bring about the kind of whole-person transformation that I would … More How I’m Planning to Teach Online (part 1)
This week is my scheduled spring break, so I was expecting to be home, catching up on grading and writing a chapter in my Lindbergh book. But I didn’t expect that this break would last two weeks, nor that when classes resume on March 30th, they would be taught online through our Easter break. Such is life … More How Christian Colleges Are Responding to COVID-19
Congratulations to the Bethel University Royals, winners of the 2019-2020 women’s basketball championship in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. We were there this afternoon at a packed Robertson Center, where Bethel eked out the victory over the Augsburg University Auggies, 72-70. Bethel gets the MIAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. Since Chris … More Saturday’s Podcast: Live from a Basketball Championship Game!
Earlier this month I attended the memorial service for Dr. Jim Johnson, who spent thirty years teaching U.S. history at Bethel. Jim retired about a decade before I arrived, and we’d only met a handful of times over the years. So I felt a bit like an interloper in a room full of his closest … More A Funeral and Four Thanksgivings
Here’s the text of my Chapel talk at Bethel University last Friday morning. I’ll skip past some of the introductory remarks — mostly clarifying that Pietism, lamentably, has nothing to do with pie — and get right into the biblical passage for the talk. I explained that Luke 24 is what G.W. Carlson had urged … More The Pietist Option for Bethel (Luke 24)
If things seem quiet around this blog, it’s because I’m preparing to give my first Bethel Chapel talk this Friday morning. Having taken themes from my book with Mark Pattie and taught about “Pietist options” for Evangelical Covenant, Lutheran, and Baptist churches, I’m thrilled to be invited to explain for students, colleagues, and other … More This Friday: “The Pietist Option for Bethel”
