Subscribe: Posts | Comments | Email
Building Lives… Living Dreams…
Thursday, July 22, 2010 No Comments
This chapter deals with the perceived need to “dress up for church” on a Sunday morning. Again, the authors trace the history of the phenomenon. Not much to say about this chapter. It’s bang-on all the way through. The strongest statement they make is that “[w]earing our ‘Sunday best’ conceals a basic underlying problem. It [...]
Category: Stuff
Saturday, July 17, 2010 No Comments
The next chapter in Pagan Christianity deals with “the pastor.” The authors claim that the contemporary version of “pastor” comes from “an implicit desire in people to have a physical leader to bring them to God.” This desire, it seems, stems from “the Fall” (p. 108). They trace the history of church leadership, which, with [...]
Category: Stuff
Saturday, July 10, 2010 10 Comments
“Culturally relevant” is what some people might call “seeker sensitive.” I use it in terms of “speaking the language of the culture around us.” There is a blurred boundary between “church” and “world.” We are in the world but not of the world. We speak the language of the world. This has been supremely modeled [...]
Category: Stuff
Friday, July 9, 2010 No Comments
I’m just finishing a book called The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions. It reveals a contrast between liberal theology (represented by Marcus Borg) and conservative theology (represented by N.T. Wright). Christianity says of God that he is both “immanent” and “transcendent.” Transcendent means that God is “above and outside” the universe. He is the Creator [...]
Category: Stuff
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 No Comments
The tradition that Viola and Barna attack next is the Sunday morning “sermon.” I have my own issues with it. I remember taking a Homiletics class in Bible college (i.e., the “art of preaching”). At one point I asked the teacher why we “preach in church.” I asked me what I meant. I said, “The [...]
Category: Stuff
Friday, July 2, 2010 No Comments
The next topic dealt with in Pagan Christianity is the “order of worship.” Viola and Barna rightly trace the elements of our “order” throughout history. Generally speaking, a church service is structured around singing and then preaching (they also add “closing prayer or song” (p. 50), although I’m not sure it’s a given; at best, [...]
Category: Stuff