Thought Question: On Dying Well

What do you do when you find out you’re going to die? I think it’s a good question because, you know, you are. Me, too. Death is pretty much inevitable.

But we live in a society that fears death. We go to church and mouth the right platitudes about “victory over death” and “O, death, where is thy sting?” and yet we can’t bear to think about it, much less to talk about it. We fear death. Maybe not as much as non-Christians, but few of us are looking forward to it. Not really.

As a result, we are generally unprepared for death when it comes — suddenly or slowly. And we rarely get to pick. Continue reading

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Blog Poll Results

Here are the results of the blog poll: “Which are your favorite progressive Church of Christ blogs? (Select up to 5)”

After you take out the “Null” votes (cast to trigger a display of the results), about 500 votes were cast. However, several people voted for the same person more than once, which is against the rules. In fact, one person voted for the same person 15 times! (You didn’t think I’d catch you?) So I had to scrub the data by removing duplicates. Continue reading

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The Poll Is Closed

With over 500 responses, I figure it’s time to shut the poll down and report the results. The blog poll is closed.

If all goes well, I’ll post the final tally later this evening.

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Thought Question: Is Barbie Bad for Girls?

The Resurgence just posted an article on how to protect your daughter from Barbie. And they are serious.

Now, I have no daughters. Just the four boys. I have a daughter-in-law, but she didn’t show up until she was past her Barbie years (so far as I know).

Yep, me and the boys always skipped the pink aisle at Toys R Us. The only thing I know about Barbie is that my two older sisters had Barbies. I could comment on the effect Barbie had on them, but I have to see them every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and so I’ll not go there. Besides, I have no idea what effect Barbie had on them.

I do know what effect Barbie had on me. Continue reading

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Real Restoration: Zechariah and Malachi

Originally, I had planned to cover Ezekiel and Jeremiah, but there is so very much material there, this series might never end. So I’m skipping to the end of the prophets.

Zechariah and Malachi both prophesied after Ezra and Nehemiah led some of the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem and rebuilt the walls and the temple. And yet they were still looking for a return from exile under the Messiah.

Zechariah

(Zec 9:9-11 ESV) 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.  Continue reading

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Small Groups: Even the Shallow Need a Place

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Thought Question: On Moving to a Church Hoping to Change It

changes road sign 300x170 Change is in the air...From Wade Hodges,

One of the biggest mistakes I made as a young preacher was that I was driven by a desire to turn the churches I was serving into churches I could be proud of working with, because at the time they didn’t didn’t measure up to my ideals. I’m ashamed to say that at times I had the attitude that the churches I was working with weren’t worthy of having me as their preacher unless they changed into the kind of churches I thought they should be. The result was that I was miserable most of the time and so were they.

I think that’s wise. I do. It’s the same mistake as marrying someone planning to fix them after the vows have been said. Dumb. Leads to resentment, anger, and divorce.

Preachers, if we are going to lead change in our churches, it must be change that is Spirit-led, not just driven by our preferences to be the preacher at an “ideal” church. It’s not that I don’t think churches need to make a lot of changes. They do and in time they will.  But they need to be lead by preachers who love them as they are and not for who they could be someday after making a bunch of necessary changes.

After all, churches can be even more resistant to change than husbands and wives. I mean, my wife has far more leverage to get me to change than the my preacher!

Preachers and other ministers, do you agree with Wade?

Elders and other volunteer church leaders, have you ever hired a minister intent on fixing your church for you? How well did it go?

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Tornado: Status, Volunteers, Donations

It’s been nearly two weeks now. Things are getting better. Most of the roads have been reopened. Power is on for most people around here. The water is drinkable once again. Things aren’t quite normal, but they are much, much better.

There are a huge number of volunteers in town. My church is hosting quite a few. We’ve been fortunate to host the United Saints Recovery Project. They posted this note on their website —

The United Saints disaster response team would like to announce their arrival and successful establishment of a forward base at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, AL.  Our efforts, which currently include 30 full time volunteers and two Americorps NCCC teams, would not be possible without Sandy Campbell and the local volunteers from University Church of Christ.  Their generosity and swift action to invite us into their community, keep us well fed, and give us a wonderful place to call home in Alabama, has been a phenomenal gesture.

We also have the Church of Christ Disaster Response Team. They are not just volunteering but also helping with coordination and oversight — a very welcome relief for our staff and many of our volunteers. Continue reading

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Real Restoration: Isaiah: The Kingdom

We’ve considered Isaiah from several perspectives. We need to add one more — the Kingdom.

The Gospels record John the Baptist and Jesus preaching the coming of the Kingdom without bothering to define it. For example, we read early in Matthew —

(Mat 3:1-2 ESV) In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,  2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

(Mat 4:17 ESV) 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

(Mat 4:23 ESV)  23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

— but we find no definition of “kingdom.” The preachers tell us Kingdom = church, but how on earth could the disciples of John the Baptist know that? Where does either Jesus or John explain that “kingdom” = church? “Church” doesn’t even appear in Mark, Luke, or John! It doesn’t show up in Matthew until chapter 18 — well into the book. Continue reading

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The rest of the original blog post

So, anyway, I was looking at the very long list of progressive Church of Christ blogs that I’ve posted here for some time, and it occurred to me that I only have time to read a small fraction of these, and yet some of the ones I’ve never read could be truly excellent blogs that deserve more publicity.

I remembered what it was like to start my own blog and how much I appreciated it when other people plugged my work. And so I thought I’d just subscribe to them all and recommend the ones I like the most. It might even make a great series …

Then I decided to stop thinking all crazy, because there are a kabillion blogs on the list, and it’s impossible for me to read that much material.

On further reflection, I realized that the readers here, as a whole, would likely know who is doing good work. And so I decided to create a poll.

Here are the rules:

1. You may select up to 5 blogs. Just hit the “Next Blog” button, the poll will re-appear, and then vote again.

2. You may only select blogs you actually read. No plugging a friend’s blog unless you actually read it.

3. No voting twice for the same blog.

4. You are welcome to encourage readers of your blogs to vote for you. After all, the poll is inherently biased toward readers of OneInJesus because this is where it is. To reduce that effect, it’d help if people were encouraged to vote from a broader base — the readers of all the blogs if at all possible. Yes, self-aggrandizement is permitted.

5. If you want, it would be great if you’d read several of the blogs on the list and find some new ones to recommend, so long as you stay within your 5-blog limit. Links are available in the list .

A few final notes —

* Sadly, I’ve had to omit Cecil Hook’s seminal “Freedom’s Ring” because it’s been hacked and the family evidently has been unable to restore it. (Links to his material are at Restoration Voices, and so all is not lost!)

* I realize some of these are not technically blogs, but I just can’t make up a list like this and not include these guys.

* If you know that any of these blogs are now defunct, let me know so I can remove them from the list.

* If I need to add someone, let me know that, too. I’ll add them.

I’ve now moved the poll to a separate post and think (fingers crossed) that I’ve got it set to work even at 800 x 640 resolution. It creates a lot of extra space at higher resolutions, but it keeps me from having to retype all those names! (I took quite a while.)

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