A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend some time at an Eastern Orthodox church (Saint Nicklaus Church, yes the guy known as Santa Clause) in SW Portland with my World Religions class. Having grown up within the evangelical church I had not spent much time with other Christians outside of that circle, [...]

Someone asked me the other day when I was going to be done with school. Most everyone I know through my church has only ever known me when I’ve been taking seminary classes, so it’s been a question I get asked quite often. I started thinking about it and I realized I’ve already gone to [...]

Last week I took a course on preaching narrative literature. One of the big areas we focused on was the power of story. The Bible has one overarching story with many great stories within it. It is a beautiful piece and it is a work of art by God that has changed the world. To [...]

The gospel. The story of the astonishing act of God himself in coming down to be part of our alienated world, to endure the full horror of our rebellion against love, to take the whole burden of our guilt and shame, and to lift us up into communion and fellowship with himself, breaks into this [...]

This post is a part of the series I’m doing on A Theology of Cultural Engagement. Check out all the other posts on VOCATION, RESTORATION, CREATION, and CROSS-BEARING. — Growing up as a senior pastor’s oldest son I’ve seen the style of local churches change. It would not surprise anyone to here me say I [...]

This post is a part of the series I’m doing on A Theology of Cultural Engagement. Today’s post will focus on the role of cross-bearing in cultural integration. — The last key area Christ leads us into cultural engagement is through cross-bearing. This is in reference to Jesus’ teaching to his disciples in Luke 9 [...]