I started this series with my desire to spend more time with God. In today’s lectionary text, we read that Jesus was (is, will be) with God outside of time: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (John … More The With-God Life: “He was in the beginning with God”
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)
While Holy Week is often a time when I write more devotionally than academically, I don’t think I’ve ever reflected on Palm Sunday. But our pastor’s sermon this morning — part of a wonderfully rich service — got me thinking about this day in new ways. Preaching on Matthew’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem … More “Look, your king is coming to you”: A Palm Sunday Meditation
Today I’m happy to welcome my Bethel colleague Ruben Rivera to the blog. Educated at Vanguard University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Boston University, Ruben came to Bethel in 1997 as a history professor, and now serves as our chief diversity officer. He regularly speaks to Christian and community groups about shalom, diversity, and reconciliation. What … More Diversity, Shalom, and Remarkable Christianity (Ruben Rivera)
On Monday Christians around the world heard again Luke’s story of the Nativity. But after lingering in some detail on the first day of Jesus’ life, that evangelist moves rapidly through the next couple decades. In the same chapter that begins with Jesus’ birth, Luke skips ahead to age 12, then summarizes Jesus’ adolescence and … More Why Every Biography Is Incomplete
Christmas is my favorite holiday, but as I get older, I find myself increasingly aware of the complicated emotions that it inspires in so many. So on this shortest day of the year, I thought I’d reprise a piece I wrote at the same time two years ago. Grace and peace to you all, however … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Blue Christmas
This 4th of July, I needed to be reminded of what America can be at its best. So I watched the new documentary on Fred Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? It’s a surprisingly terrific film: creative, inspiring, moving, surprising, and thought-provoking. Perhaps most refreshingly, it doesn’t shy away from the role of Christianity in the life … More The Gentle Power of Mr. Rogers
Thanks to Rev. Johnny Agurkis for inviting me to preach yesterday at Cape Cod Covenant Church. Given some recent conversations in our denomination and the fact that it was the Sunday before Independence Day, the topic was an easy choice. I’m checking off a lot of firsts during my month-long visit to the East Coast. … More Freedom in Christ (Galatians 5)
Thanks to Pastor Doug Bixby, for effectively switching places with me yesterday: while he was back in my hometown participating in the annual meeting of the Covenant Church, I had the chance to preach and teach at the church he serves in Attleboro, Massachusetts. (And thanks to their associate pastor, Chris Wall, for being such … More Stories of Hope: Joseph… and Judah
Briefly this morning, let me recommend a new Patheos blog called Digital Wisdom. Though written by multiple authors, I know it best via Michael Paulus, the university librarian at Seattle Pacific University who was one of my hosts when I spoke at SPU’s faculty retreat last fall. “Within the last thirty years,” he wrote in the … More Digital Wisdom: A New Blog on Technology and Theology
The Pietist Schoolman 