ken wilson online

Well of course you have.  Then why did you cringe with the title of this post?  Because you probably realize how incredibly daunting the Bible can be–you who wrestle with it week to week to make it sensible to others.  Those others can maintain the comfortable fiction that the Bible is a plain and simple text for plain and simple people, as accessible as Chicken Soup for the Soul or The Purpose Driven Life.
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Robert Putnam is the most careful purveyor of survey data alive.  He understands religion in America as few others do, and with great appreciation for its benefits.  So when he speaks, we’re smart to listen.  And this is what he’s telling us: evangelicalism in America grew robustly in th 1970’s and 1980’s (when my church community, Vineyard, was founded.) But by 1990 it hit a wall, and since then has been in numerical decline.
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Headline: “In the Latest Religious Battle, A Call to Arms for Mother Theresa.”  Some Christians wanted the Empire State building to honor Mother Theresa’s 100th birthday by displaying white and blue lights on the building.  The building managers said, “We don’t do that for religious figures.”  The Catholic Anti-Defamation League called for a public protest. And this honored Mother Theresa?  Shall we get a grip? It’s time to move beyond the communal instinct to “defend the faith” against the “attacks” of outsiders, and humbly consider what we’re doing to besmirch the gospel.  What are we doing to place a millstone ’round the neck of those who might otherwise find their way to faith?
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Like many of you, I’d just as soon replace the word, “evangelical” with something else.  Not because it isn’t a perfectly fine word, but for the response it evokes, thanks to the culture war tactics of so many American evangelicals in the last thirty years.  But the fact is, labels are difficult to shed, and the labeled are not consulted about their moniker preferences. (My parents didn’t seek my permission to name me and “Christians” were so named by the people of Antioch who were not believers.)  And I wonder if the hand of God isn’t behind this label’s stickiness.  Like God himself may be holding it in place on us until we understand what it means.
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If you’re a young pastor in the United States, you’ve grown up with the culture wars.  You may be sick to death of them, but you may also find them hard to shake.  In the middle of the noise, let me offer this counsel: don’t let the loudest voices intimidate you.  Do the work of an evangelist.  Keep your heart open to the heart of God for those who are the outside of faith looking in.  Like Billy Graham, in fact, who in his later years has had some pretty surprising things to say.
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Even though I live in Ann Arbor I know many people who are skeptical about the climate science that says human activity is heating the planet. Invariably, they are also devout Catholic Christians or Evangelical Christians–these friends of mine.
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Back from vacation Up North (f you seek a pleasant peninsula–look about you!).  Spent all day yesterday cleaning up my home office, where my praying space is.   In Mystically Wired I have a little section on making a physical space for prayer in your home or apartment and keeping that one spot clear for prayer.   No paying bills or arguing with your wife in that space.  A set apart place.
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Just got back from a sweet time in Sugar Land, Texas, home to the Sugar Land Vineyard and the headquarters of Vineyard: A Community of Churches.  It’s the deep South.  Tom DeLay’s old congressional district.  Senior Pastor of the Sugar Land Vineyard is Reagan Waggoner, named after you know who.  A talented younger pastor who has the Jesus nerve to teach on social justice.  A church I’d gladly attend every Sunday.  And a place I learned the wisdom of that Southern phrase, “y’all.”
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If you’re a young pastor, chances are you’re electronically connected: emailing, text messaging, Facebook, all the day long.  And you know this has an addictive quality. The brain is wired to be alert and curious about any new information.  And electronic media delivers!  We consume triple the daily information that we did (er, I did) in 1960.  While new media brings myriad advantages, you know in your bones that it’s also a curse: a steady stream of white noise that leaves you feeling a mile wide and an inch deep.
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Detroit Tiger pitcher, Armando Galarraga, had every right to call for Jim Joyce’s head on a platter.  Joyce, the first plate umpire, blew the call on what would have been the final out of a perfect game.

After the game, Galarraga expressed his respect for Joyce as a first-rate umpire and let him off the hook with a simple and poignant, “Nobody’s perfect.”  Kind words from a man who had just pitched a perfect game ruined by an imperfect call.
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