Holiness Reeducation

This week was our annual gathering for District Assembly. All of those zany churches that make up the NW Indiana District gathered for a time of celebration, inspiration and accountability. When I say it like that, it sounds way more fun than District Assembly doesn’t it? This year instead of sharing reports about what is […]

“The more I consider Christianity, the more I found that while it has established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.” – G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy) I ran across that quote the other day while wrestling my way through JR Woodward’s book Creating […]

In an age of #hashtags, category tags on posts and buzz words galore, it is really hard to know whether categories and tags have any meaning, Is this simply another spin off of the latest meme or does it have real meaning? Over the past three or four decades in the North American evangelical church […]

Each tribe within the church body has its own peculiarities, beautiful elements and rituals. Whenever I gather together with my brothers and sisters of the Church of the Nazarene I am reminded of what it is that makes us who we are. Today I write in celebration and simple recognition of the things that make […]

There is a great article by Kevin Ulmet, pastor of Nashville First Church of the Nazarene that appears in Holiness Today. I highly recommend all my Nazarene brothers and sisters give it a read.Here is a brief excerpt. I have been in Nazarene ministry now for 30 years; I wouldn’t change a thing if I […]

What does the culture and church in Europe have to teach us about the North American church? That is one of the primary questions that I went into our European expedition asking. It is a question I have been pondering for some time. When we began to talk to people about this trip, I kept […]

Our time in Rome thus far has been marked by two distinctive images for me. Their contrast is staggering and worthy of contemplation. The first image is from our visit yesterday to the Vatican. It was my first time in St. Peter’s Basilca and I was awed by the experience. The beauty of St. Peter’s […]

On Monday I am heading off to France, Spain, Portugal and Italy with a group of pastors from my district. We are going because we want to vacation in Europe without our families on a visioning trip to prayerfully consider how to partner churches here in NW Indiana with churches in these countries. Our district […]

  Most of you will be familiar with the scene in the movie the Matrix where Neo has to choose between taking the red pill or the blue pill. If he takes the blue pill he will wake up in his bed and his life will go on the same as it always has. If […]

In Christian Smith’s new book The Bible Made Impossible we encounter an in depth look at Evangelicalism’s foundational beliefs about the Bible and their implications. This is a challenging and important book for all of us who teach scripture, debate theology, and defend the authority of scripture to read and discuss. Last week I began […]