Monthly Archives: March 2009

Dialogue with Robert Prater, Part 4

I’m stating my point a different way this time, as it’s obvious that Robert is not hearing what I’m trying to say. I earlier wrote a post pointing out that it is inadequate for those in the conservative Churches of … Continue reading

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How to Argue Like a Christian: Slander, gossip, and swimming pools

This story is told by a campus minister friend of mine. In anticipation of fall semester, the minister wrote congregations around the state inviting students coming to attend the University of Alabama to participate in his student ministry. He pointed … Continue reading

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Renewing Our Worship: Epilogue

In a few of the earlier posts in this series, I mentioned the 30-hour fast our teens had undertaken to help children dying from starvation. They made streamers of 26,000 paperchains — the number of children dying each day from … Continue reading

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How to Argue Like a Christian: Camels noses and compromises

At a Sunday morning assembly, the elder making the closing announcements asks the members and visitors to pass in their attendance sheets. At no one’s request, a seven-year old girl named Katie gets up to help pick up the sheets. … Continue reading

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The Blue Parakeet: The Story and Its Plot (Expanded)

McKnight explains that the Story of the Bible is held together by 5 themes – * Creating Eikons (Genesis 1 – 2): Theme is Oneness * Cracked Eikons (Genesis 3 – 11): Theme is Otherness * Covenant Community (Genesis 12Continue reading

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The Holy Spirit: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

I get emails – I have been reading through your blog material for quite some time now and I appreciate you so much. You are addressing so much and reaffirming to me that I am doing the right thing by … Continue reading

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How to Argue Like a Christian: False Dichotomies

Your wife walks in the door fresh from the local dress shop. “Just look at this beautiful dress I bought!” she says. You notice that the dress is indeed very beautiful — too beautiful! “Ahem. It looks really nice,” you … Continue reading

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It’s (Almost) Friday! The Franchise Agreement

The other day, we elders were chatting about the possiblity of canceling Wednesday night services for part of the summer.The volunteers in our children’s ministry are worn out, and the school year has gotten so long that the summer is … Continue reading

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How to Argue Like a Christian: Over-generalizing and Not Listening

It’s awfully easy to find in any group of people a few outliers — people identified with the group who aren’t really representative of the group. I mean, no group of human beings is free of sin or foolishness, and … Continue reading

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Dialogue with Robert Prater, Part 3

Robert responded to my post of yesterday, and I’m glad he did as he raises questions that need to be addressed. As before, his original comment iis italics. This is a very long post, but Robert advocates for his position … Continue reading

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