We’ve recently been hearing about the ways sacrificial love plays out in middle class Tanzanian marriages. And Tamie’s been reflecting on American Gospel, a polemical film dealing with prosperity teaching. And I’ve been thinking again about how my understanding of ‘weakness’ in the New Testament has changed. In Australia, we […]
We were recently at the visit of Ben Witherington III to Churches of Christ Theological College. I see him as a sort of American NT Wright: his scholarship has a deeply pastoral dimension and he’s right in on the public discourse (radio programs, TV documentaries, popular books, blogging). BW3 was providing […]
I’ve posted recently about the failings of Thomas Cranmer and Jonathan Edwards, asking why we’re reluctant to speak about their shortcomings. I wonder whether we’re scared that this might discredit their ministry. My (anecdotal) argument is motivated by great ‘heroes’ of the Bible who were pretty suspect themselves. Their fallenness […]
Of the five ministry roles Paul refers to in Ephesians 4:11, present-day Protestant Christianity broadly recognises the pastor, the teacher and the evangelist in some form or other. The apostle, however, forms another biblical prototype for ministry.
One of the great things about doing a ministry traineeship for two years before coming to college as I did is that the ‘real’ experience of full-time ministry provides you with plenty of questions! One of my questions that I’ve raised before (here and here) is how to deal with […]
Arthur and I have been having an ongoing conversation with someone at our church about training others for ministry. We’ve all agreed that we need to raise up others for ministry, but we’ve been discussing whether we need to train them as well. What’s the role of the Holy Spirit? […]
Our minister, Mark, runs a group on Monday nights for his interns and others interested in full time ministry. Last Monday, we spent some time looking at some leadership theory and in particular, the work of a secular writer, A. Mant. One part of the readings considered the key disqualifiers […]
Meet Jesus at uni 