Category Archives: Churches of Christ

Fixing Our Universities: The Story of Smurf

I guess I need to explain myself. Here I am railing against our universities’ peculiar priorities, and I’ve not yet told you the story of Smurf. You see, a young man who grew up in my home (a friend of … Continue reading

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Fixing Our Universities: Harding and Abilene Offer Free Ministry Training

For a while now, I’ve been complaining that our Christian universities burden our future ministers and missionaries with heavy tuition, while giving away free educations to athletes, who sometimes have no interest in the things of Jesus. It’s a strange … Continue reading

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: A Drug-Induced Dream

I’ve been passing these kidney stones, and I have to take some pretty powerful drugs. And drugs lead to some very strange dreams. I woke, or so it seemed, about 100 years from now. I was surrounded by kind but … Continue reading

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 10, If I Were Pope

Well, the Churches of Christ don’t have a pope, or anything close to it. And I don’t think we should. And if we did, it certainly shouldn’t be me. But if God were to make me the progressive Churches of … Continue reading

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A Better Way to Be a Restoration Church

[I’m reposting this one from August. It’s cited in the article on a New Restorationism. The post makes better sense once you’ve read this.] In the last post, I suggested that a better approach to the assembly is to think … Continue reading

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 9, A New Restorationism

It’s just so easy, and facile, to say the Restoration Movement has run its course and we need to do something else now. If that were entirely true, why aren’t we all Baptists or Methodists or something else? Why are … Continue reading

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 8, Predictions

Only God knows the future, and he’s not shared it with me. But here’s my best guess. And it’s part of why I’m so unhappy with how we progressives are acting. This is, of course, the unless-something-happens-to-fix-it version. * Many … Continue reading

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 7.5, Is This Any Way to Run a War?

I’ve mentioned my worries about the longterm viability of some of our institutions as the Churches of Christ continue to divide. And I’ve mentioned our difficulties in cooperating. While I’m on the subject, let me explain a closely related problem … Continue reading

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 7, On Being Held Back by Forgotten Fights

Now, one of the biggest reasons we don’t know how to cooperate to accomplish truly large tasks, such as missions, church planting, and publishing Sunday school literature, is the old “missionary society” controversy. A missionary society is just a nonprofit … Continue reading

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The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 6, Forgetting Who We Are

* The progressives are moving so rapidly into a generic evangelicalism that we may lose the Godly parts of our Restoration Movement heritage. We have much to contribute to the evangelical mainstream — but not if we forget who we … Continue reading

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