Mission and Strategy Let’s recall our four governing questions: Which values are central to the Christian life and which are peripheral? Which central values are internal to the Church only and which should Christians promote in the society at large? How should individuals and churches promote …
Chapter 7: Idols, Temples, and Politics
Idols, Temples, and Politics I ended the previous chapter with this phrase: “As Christians, we rise above such petty, temporary, earthly allegiances because we have a higher calling for a higher purpose from a higher authority." That’s a strong statement, and it’s biblically true, but I’m not …
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Chapter 6: Modern Applications
Modern Applications In the last chapter, I addressed the first two questions of the church’s moral dilemma: Which values are central to the Christian life and which are peripheral? Which central values are internal to the Church only and which should Christians promote in the society at …
Chapter 5: Scripture’s Call to Moral Action
This is the longest chapter in the book. Over 12,300 words. Take your time with it! Scripture’s Moral Truths In Chapter 1, I described the overall dilemma facing the church as this: How much of the “not yet" is it the responsibility of the church to advance in our real world today? And then I …
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Chapter 4: A Confession
A Confession I ended the previous chapter with four questions Christians need to answer as we consider our responsibility to be agents of the gospel in the world today. However, before I can address any of those questions directly, it’s important for me to openly address the biases from which I am …
Chapter 3: Gospel Integration
Gospel Integration Some traditions refer to the transformative work of the gospel as “progressive sanctification," but the application of that concept is almost exclusively individual and “spiritual." For those traditions, the gospel begins a spiritual work in the heart of a person to make that …
Chapter 2: A Re-United Gospel
Our Different Gospels Not long ago, I was in a meeting with a variety of pastors from a variety of traditions and we were talking about something scholars call “Liberation Theology." Before long, we found ourselves in the midst of a heated debate over the true meaning of the word gospel. For the …
Chapter 1: The Dilemma of the Church
The Dilemma of the Church Incongruity From the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry with them, the disciples faced a difficult dilemma. Borne largely out of the incongruity between what they thought the Messiah was supposed to do and what Jesus was actually doing, they constantly and repeatedly were …
Introduction
Before getting into the main content of my book, I want to take some time to share an introduction of sorts, a brief description of the journey I have taken over the past 16 years or so. Introduction In 2006, when Jennifer and I moved to Lafayette to start a church, we had a number of …
The “Good Morning Church” Book
edit: I have removed the chapters from my blog for the moment because I'm submitting the book to publishers and agents at the moment. For a number of years now, I have been on a spiritual and emotional journey of learning what I was never taught about racism by building personal relationships …