Living life with steps of faith

Sometimes I feel like I am a walking oxymoron. I am both a mainline Christian and an evangelical Christian. At the same time I am indifferent toward or reject aspects of mainline Christianity and aspects of evangelical Christianity. I like to say I am only a Christian and that I need no modifier to explain my faith. Yet I get cornered into situations where I get labeled as either one or the other or am pushed to say certain things that make it seem as though I identify with one over the other. In my inbox right now I have an email from a mainline church that references my role on their evangelism team and an email from an evangelical church that references my role as a facilitator at their evangelism training. This is craziness! It is craziness, because I suspect each church would be uncomfortable with the other church's methods of evangelism. So I wonder - is there something wrong with me? Why is it that I can identify with both methodologies and both messages and see the stren...

"In the beginning..." Today I started reading through the Bible, Creation to the Throne of God. In just about 5 months I will be ordained as a minister in the Christian church. When I met with the pastor of my home congregation to discuss the ordination process, he challenged me to consider how I might spiritually prepare for ordination. One of the ways I decided to prepare was by reading through the whole Bible between now and then. While I was on my intercultural immersion study trip in east Kentucky, I learned a lot about the relationship between humans and the earth. I was reminded of how I am lacking in my appreciation for and understanding of nature. Consequently, I feel led to use the Green Bible as my source of devotion for this time period of preparation. I also hope to reflect upon nature by planting a garden this spring and reading from my undergraduate Environmental Studies book. Today's reading was the story of Creation and Re-Creation through the flood. ...

Imagine this: Israel's two arch-enemies worshipping God alongside Israel! Imagine this: The wholeness of God's people being illustrated by Israel and Israel's oppressors! Imagine this: God using the same language to identify Egypt and Assyria that God uses to identify His chosen people Israel! Check out this passage, and see the amazing long-term reconciling plan of God: "On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun." Note: language of Canaan is a language that worships God. "On that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the center of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them. The LORD will make himself known to t...

Interesting article: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/deeper-walk/features/19437-no-place-like-home

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGNkOTY0NTA0YTY5ZGI2NGMxMDk4YjQ5ODFjNGQxMGI=

Even though I was very much opposed to Sarah Palin being the Republican choice for President... er, I mean Vice President, I would be a huge supporter of her starting her very own talk show. The release of Palin's new book, "Going Rogue" and her much (too-long) awaited appearance on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" seem to have appropriately gained U.S. Americans attention as well as my own. I agree with both Jeff Simon, from "the Buffalo News" and Oprah, Sarah Palin would be a great talk show host. (See Simon's article: http://www.buffalonews.com/494/story/864456.html ) Palin would be a draw for conservatives and Christians and perhaps she could still end up being the "magic" the disillusioned Republican party needs. She may not be President, but we all know how influential talk show hosts and media personalities can be -- just look at "O." Perhaps McCain wasn't too far off course - Palin perhaps is the key to his party's futur...

Recently I became aware of how significantly the absence of fathers in today's culture is impacting society. It is incredible how we can examine nearly any social problem today and find a place where the absence of fathers has had a negative impact on the area of social concern. As a result of this recent raised awareness, I'm going to be intentional about posting on the topic of fatherlessness and fatherhood on this blog. To start, I'd like to direct your attention to a recent blog post by Roland Warren of the National Fatherhood Initiative: http://thefatherfactor.blogspot.com/2009/11/crime-of-fatherlessness.html