Tag: Reformation
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Culture Shaping Power of the Church
Os Guinness, in his excellent book, Renaissance, concerning the church in midst of the present challenges unprecedented in Western Culture, notes the culture changing and culture shaping power of the gospel, when the gospel is both declared by God’s People and is actively shaping God’s People. When many of our churches are caving in pursuit of…
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Symbol of a New Day Dawning
From time to time I am asked why I have a rooster for a profile picture, both on my blog and on Facebook. What’s more, the rooster is also the screensaver on my phone. I use these images for more reason than just the bucolic tranquility they depict. The rooster has a long history as…
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Seasons of Revival
No matter how many times I have seen them, my bemusement has never seemed to wane. I appreciate the zeal, yet marvel at the naivete’. Signs and banners adorning church doors and properties: “Revival Tonight!” “Revival This Week!” Don’t get me wrong, I long to experience revival – a genuine work of God, an outpouring…
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Inebriated by the Gospel
Great grace laced imagery from Robert Capon: The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievilism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred-proof grace – of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God…
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Reformation Essentials
On October 31, 1517 a young college professor, heavy of heart, wanted to discuss some of the things he was thinking. Posting his thoughts on the front doors of the church in the center of town – the 16th Century version of Facebook or blogging – a flame ignited that still burns today. In fact, with…
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Here I Stand
Today being Reformation Sunday, the day on the ecclesiastical calender commemorating the anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses on the doors of the church at Wittenburg, which inadvertantly set into motion a radical transformation of both the church and Western Culture, I thought it might be appropriate to review the roots of what…
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Radical Reformission
Long ago I shamelessly pilferred the word “Reformissional” from Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church and Acts 29 Network. The word seemed to encapsulate what I was about. The word is a hybrid of both Reformed and Missional, two parallel tracks that both decribe and shape my philosophy of ministry – and even, to a large degree, my…
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Antithesis Manifesto
Several years ago a now defunct web-based organization, Antithesis or ChristianCounterCulture.com, published a manifesto that prophetically challenges contemporary Evanglicalism. It resonated with me then and, with the exception of the dating in the opening paragraph, it remains timely. From time to time I re-read, what I call, the Antithesis Manifesto to refresh my thoughts. As I reflect…
