Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sex, the Church, and Miss California: Mixed Messages from the Church?

I just read a fascinating article about Christians and sex from the Associated Press (of all places!) — The agonizing message to a young Christian couple in love: Sex can wait, but so can marriage. ‘It’s unreasonable to say, ‘Don’t … Continue reading

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Neo-Calvinism: A Plea

I’m about to start a series on something called “Neo-Calvinism.” I’m pretty excited about it, mainly because it’s an area of theology I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. I think there’s a lot to learn here. But … Continue reading

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Sex, the Church, and Miss California: On Modesty

If it’s a sin for a man to lust, it’s a sin for a woman to tempt the man to lust. We have to teach our women and girls to sacrifice fashion for the sake of God and protecting marriages. … Continue reading

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Sex, the Church, and Miss California: Women’s Lib and Beauty Pageants

I graduated from high school in 1972, the first class not to have a draft number. It was the age of hippies, war protesters, and assasinations. And women’s lib. The Equal Rights Amendment was in the headlines daily, and the … Continue reading

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Sex, the Church, and Miss California: Serving the Hurting

The church should be a community that … loves and nurtures the hurting souls and bruised lost ones who seriously desire to be shown another way but are too consumed at this moment to see anything else. This is big. … Continue reading

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Backgrounds of the Restoration Movement: Baptism, Primitivism, and Heresy, Part 2

This brings us to the famous Lunenburg letter correspondence. Some of Campbell’s early writing often seems to suggest that he considered baptism essential to salvation. And this was conventional wisdom within much of the Movement. However, Stone had never considered … Continue reading

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Backgrounds of the Restoration Movement: Baptism, Primitivism, and Heresy, Part 1

The Restoration Movement was not begun with baptism in mind. Indeed, Barton W. Stone, Thomas Campbell, and Alexander Campbell had all begun their ministries and had written some of their most famous documents long before baptism became an issue. You … Continue reading

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Starting a Hispanic Ministry, by Tim Archer

Great series of articles by Tim Archer on something I know nothing about, over at his “The Kitchen of Half-Baked Thoughts” — Stockdale bilingual church Should we be preparing to be bilingual? The magic formula for having a successful Hispanic … Continue reading

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On the Importance of Laughing at Yourself

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him. ~ Thomas Szasz The following is an absolutely true story. One of my sons was in a high school class with friends … Continue reading

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Sex, the Church, and Miss California: Celebrating Celibacy

We should be a community that … stops acting like heterosexual marriage and sex itself are absolutely essential for a fulfilling Christian life. We should elevate celibacy/singleness as a vocation, testifying that sexual drive and all desire needs to be … Continue reading

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