I’m Gonna Tell My Guy Friends I Love Them

Here’s why I’m gonna tell my guy friends that I love them: because I do love them. Pretty simple huh? The Problem We live in a culture that has, for all intents and purposes, reduced the the phrase “I love you” to only two definitions: I want to have sex with you. I vaguely wish that you would be happy, because being happy is so nice. Both of these definitions lack the true meaning of love. You want to know my definition? I steal it from J. Budziszewski who stole it from Aquinas, who stole it from Aristotle, who actually … [Read more]

Legality is Not Morality

In my Sunday afternoon group (homegroup) we’ve been going over various Christian ethics questions and trying to discern the Biblical worldview. I noticed a few times through the course of the lessons a dangerous and unquestioned assumption: if it’s legal, it must be good, or at the very least, not bad. For Christians, this is one of the most pernicious and harmful assumptions we can make in our time, so I’d like to flesh out this basic distinction a bit. We’ll start with defining the two terms, legality and morality, and then we’ll compare and contrast them. Finally, we’ll talk … [Read more]

The Hatmakers are Gay Affirming

https://www.facebook.com/HatmakerBrandon/posts/661677820673474 This is a review of a post by Brandon Hatmaker (husband of Jen Hatmaker) explaining their choice to join the revolution of “affirming Christians.” A link to the post is at the top of this page. Please DO read it for yourself before reading this review. I’m writing this at the request of a friend, and I am happy to oblige. I would recommend having the post open in a different window next to this one, so you can see both at the same time. That’s how I wrote it. So, when I quote something from the post, you … [Read more]

Retraction and Reaction: My Words and Andy Stanley’s

This is a retraction (or adjustment) of a previous post, and a critique of Andy Stanley’s philosophy and most recent sermons. Introduction In light of the recent controversy over the Rob-Bell-esque, postmodern slip (or nose-dive) that Andy Stanley has taken toward emergent church heresy, I’ve been thinking a lot about a post I wrote in January of this year called “The Bible’s Not Essential to Christianity.” In it, I used some careless language and made a few factual errors and so I’d like to clarify and correct my own words, and also offer a critique of Andy Stanley’s philosophy that … [Read more]

Your Church Doesn’t Need “A Mission Statement”

Introduction If you belong to an evangelical church with over 100 members it probably has a “vision statement” or “mission declaration” or something similar. I pulled up the websites of the churches nearest me and quickly found quite a few mission statements. Here’s a small sampling: “Our vision is simple: Knowing Christ. Loving People. Changing Lives.” “[We are] an intergenerational, multicultural body of believers in Christ making disciples who are being transformed through Jesus Christ, making relationships in a life-giving community of sacrificial love, and making an impact on the world by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with … [Read more]