Faith Improvised

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about leadership recently and I thought I would revise some previous meditations on the topic from a cruciform perspective. The cross of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith, and it shapes  and determines everything about being Christian. Cruciformity — or, being “cross-shaped” — means having our lives and church […]

I’ve been reading and re-reading Mark 3:13-19 in which Jesus appoints the Twelve “that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” I recall wandering through an airport bookstore and flipping through a book titled something like “Leadership Lessons from Jesus.” One […]

From Joel Marcus’s commentary on Mark 3:14-15 — “He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” But the Twelve are not only summoned to perform acts of proclamation and exorcism; those acts flow out of a prior […]

I’ve been reviewing some older critiques of “the new perspective on Paul” that mention specifically its lack of a theology of sin and salvation. It seems to me, however, that it’s more accurate to say that “the new perspective” broke the hegemony of a certain account of what Paul must have meant by the plight […]

In Paul and the Faithfulness of God, N. T. Wright has a wonderful section dealing with the multifaceted “plight” in Paul’s theological outlook. For Paul, far more has gone wrong than simply humanity being sinful and in need of being set right with God. The problem of evil is multi-dimensional, including personal and cosmic aspects. This, […]

For a variety of reasons, many churches are not places of welcome and rest for those struggling with depression. The helpless silences and perceived judgmentalism can have tragic consequences. In Depression in the Church, my sister, Alison Hall, courageously tells her own story of suffering in the darkness and of breaking through the deceptions and misconceptions […]

Last Friday night Grand Rapids Theological Seminary held its commencement ceremony. It was a wonderful time of celebration and once again made me so happy to be part of an institution and community so thoroughly shaped by the gospel and by Kingdom priorities. I led the invocation and this was my prayer: Lord and heavenly […]

In Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain has an interesting discussion of stage fright, noting that “public speaking is the number-one fear in America, far more common than the fear of death.” I’m terrified pretty much every time I speak in front of other people, so this […]

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about Paul as a pastoral theologian (or, as a theologically-oriented pastor). I was struck by, and had to re-read a few times, this wonderful closing passage to Part 2 of N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God: So when people say, as they often do, that […]

Over the last few days I’ve been reflecting a bit on the character of Christian identity with reference to its corporate and individual dimensions. After introducing it in class a few times, I’ve been struck by some of the questions I’ve encountered. As I indicated previously, students from communal cultures (e.g., parts of Africa, Asia, S. America) […]