Church Blog (Page 6)

Church Blog (Page 6)

The Distraction of Boredom

Have you noticed how almost everything in our society today is focused on entertainment?  Our lifestyles push us so that we do not have much downtime at all, and much of the time we spend engaged in activity is centered on keeping us entertained.  Sports have become a multibillion dollar industry, regardless of the level.  For instance, the NFL alone reported $14.2…

The Power of Story

Over the past eleven years, a remarkable series of movies have been produced based on comic book characters from Marvel Comics.  Marvel had attempted to produce movies prior to their release of Iron Man in 2008, but had failed to find much commercial success in their endeavors (in fact, they sometimes failed rather spectacularly).  In casting the actor Robert Downey, Jr.…

The Day After Easter…and Beyond

The weeks leading up to Easter can be a special, if not hectic, time for believers (and especially for churches).  There is something incredibly sweet about meditating on our celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We are reminded of our need for a Savior, as well as how that Savior was the Second Person on the Trinity who stepped out of eternity and into…

Disappointment

Our family has made somewhat regular trips to Louisville, Kentucky, for the past few years.  There have been many reasons for this destination, including the fact that it is the home of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (where I am a longsuffering student, emphasis on the long), a wonderful city full of places to explore for the whole family, and the presence of…

Short Attention Spans

Last week, Sports Illustrated reported that the coach of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, Kliff Kingsbury, has decided to provide “cellphone breaks” during team meetings in order to help his players maintain their concentration and attention.  Kingsbury, who previously coached the Texas Tech football team, was noticing what could only be described as withdrawal symptoms…

Pride

The early Church father Augustine, who was the bishop of Hippo in Africa and one of the most important theologians of that early period, considered the sin of pride to be the fundamental sin, the root from which all other sins proceeded.  He pointed to the sin of pride that motivated Satan to seek to desire God’s place, as well as the sin of pride that consumed Adam…

The End of the World As We Know It

A favorite children’s story is “Chicken Little,” which is about a naïve fowl who has the proclivity to believe the end of the world has begun as the result of some rather mundane event (in many tellings of this fable, an acorn falling out of a tree and hitting her on the head).  Chicken Little begins to run to all her friends in order to warn them – quite hysterically –…

The Beauty of Diversity

Where I grew up (the northeast Georgia mountains), there was not very much diversity, however you would like to define it.  The county was pretty close to 100% Caucasian, and at the time, there were not all that many residents who could not trace their roots back to some of the earliest settlers of the area.  This lack of diversity, sadly, often led to ideas and…

The UMC and the Moral Revolution

Ever since the United Methodist Church (UMC) was formed in 1968 by the merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the question of how the denomination should view homosexuality has been a recurring issue at each of their quadrennial General Conferences.  This conflict existed despite the fact that The Book of Discipline, the…