Abandonment

If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. – Luke 17:33 Jesus often talks about how, in order to inherit the kingdom, we need to abandon our worldly ambitions.  The passage from Luke, quoted above, is just one example of this. From the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus calls his followers to abandonment as a requirement of following him.  For...

Theological Illiteracy In The US On The Rise

Via Yahoo News: A new survey of Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths. Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could...

Monastic Communities – Faith In Action

h/t – Huffington Post GRESHAM, Ore. (RNS) In the two years since David Knepprath and Josh Guisinger moved into the rough-and-tumble Barberry Village complex, roughly a dozen young Christian men and women have made Barberry Village their home. Their goal: Create a sense of community in a chaotic neighborhood overrun with drugs, prostitution and gangs. It’s not an easy way to live. Some neighbors...

Phoenix Priest Is Excommunicated Over Ordination Of Woman

From the Arizona Republic: The Rev. Vernon Meyer, who had submitted his resignation to the bishop earlier this summer, becomes at least the fifth priest to be ousted from the church under Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. He was not defrocked, which is a separate penalty. Meyer was penalized because of his participation in the ordination of Elaine Groppenbacher in Tempe last month. Bishop Olmstead replaced Thomas...

Church Things I Don’t Get: #1 Altar Calls

Ok, so in looking at things that the modern church does while writing my book, I’ve run across a few things that honestly, either make me crazy or I just don’t get.  There’s a few of them, but I figured I’d start with my #1, the ubiquitous “Altar Call“. Now, I grew up Catholic, and we didn’t do that.  The first time I experienced it was in my return to church about 5...