Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. We acknowledge that we are nation of flatterers, and that we …
A Limerick for the URC
There was a conservative and Dutchy denom That passed a report with indignant aplomb. But we never bleed, If our critics can’t read, And so here’s to a missing-the-point pheenom. . . . I don’t believe I have ever footnoted a limerick before, so here you go.
Skanky Movie III
One trap that parents fall into is the trap of not wanting sin around their kids. But I suppose this requres some explanation. The mistake arises because there are a bunch of sins that parents should keep away from their kids — kidnappers, for starters, and cocaine dealers, and pornographers, and seducers, and Cartesian dualists. …
That Languid Soccer Player Way
“Before the discussion gets sidetracked on the basis of caricature, lett us grant that the arbiter of long and short ought not to be a particularly strict dorm monitor at a fundamentalist Bible college. Paul says short, not ‘less than a quarter inch, with pink sidewalls around the ears.’ He says long, not ‘over a …
Source Material
“Gravitas can also be inherited from relatively healthy families who simply tell their stories well. The southern novelists Flannery O’Connor once claimed that anyone who pays attention to his or her childhood could write novels for the rest of his or her life” (Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet, p. 50).
The Old Suits and Haircuts Problem
Suits and Haircuts from Canon Wired on Vimeo.
A Miss As Good as a Mile
“A common evangelical saying is that many miss heaven by eighteen inches . . . the distance between the head and the heart. We also need to remember that many others miss heaven by thirty-four inches” (Why Ministers Must Be Men, p. 23).
The Attractive Soul
“The old seminary professors used to speak about a necessary trait for pastoral ministry called gravitas. It refers to a soul that has developed enough spiritual mass to be attractive, like gravity. It makes the soul appear old, but gravitas has nothing to do with age. It has everything to do with wounds that have …
How Bad Theology is Incentivized
“When men follow a teacher like Jezebel of Thyatira, they are doing so not because her doctrinal reasons are so compelling and her academic credentials so impressive, but rather because following her will greatly increase their chances of getting laid (Rev. 2:20). If a prophet comes prophesying wine and beer (Mich. 2:11), he is sure …
Freed Through Expression
“This is why poetry does not have to be defended, inculcated, or coerced. It only appears defenseless. Its power resides not in the orthodoxy of the verse, and certainly not in the creativity of the poet, but in the inspired word that has the power to untangle the distorted image of God. The truth of …