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Mercy Not Sacrifice

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December 2019

December 05, 2019

The Conservative Insight I Cannot Reject

We live in an age in which actual conservative principles have been buried by tribal...

August 2018

August 24, 2018

Did Lou Reed understand God’s kingdom better than evangelicals do?

Admittedly I put the word "evangelicals" in the title of this blog post as click-bait,...

December 2017

December 28, 2017

Lee Wyatt’s Gospel for People Who Aren’t Guilt-Ridden

My Facebook friend Lee Wyatt has written a book called The Incredible Shrinking Gospel about the...

August 2017

August 02, 2017

How do I preach the gospel at the #1 party school in the country?

It's official. The Princeton Review has declared Tulane University the #1 party school in the...

July 2017

July 23, 2017

When Jesus’ garden becomes a monoculture

I have been a gardener for many years. And I hate weeds. In Louisiana, the...

September 2016

September 07, 2016

Toxic Christianity encapsulated in a church sign

This church sign captures everything that is wrong with toxic Christianity and why it positions...

September 03, 2016

When the kingdom of God disrupts my church marketing

Everyone is always marketing. I suspect there were hundreds of college classrooms that began their...

July 2016

July 01, 2016

Is there a Christianity that isn’t toxic?

Have American Christians become what Jesus came to stop us from being? It’s not an...

April 2016

April 15, 2016

The 12 scriptures that inspired my book

When I was a Southern Baptist, we used to believe that Methodists didn't read the...

February 2014

February 26, 2014

The kingdom is for outsiders: a “skinny-jeans evangelical” response to @scotmcknight

I've been enjoying the stimulating conversation at the Ecclesia National Gathering in DC. Scot McKnight...

May 2013

May 12, 2013

The savior who made us relevant to His mission (Acts 1:6-11)

I preached this weekend about the ascension of Christ. As I shared in a blog...

May 09, 2013

Why suburbia is bad for the kingdom: a response to Mere Orthodoxy

Postmodern thinkers sometimes settle for deconstructing the motives of their critics instead of making defensible...

April 2013

April 17, 2013

Should Christians weigh in on other peoples’ tragedies?

A friend of mine who recently had a major shift in his theology wrote the...

April 14, 2013

Why you need to hear Jonathan Martin preach about heaven

I've got issues with how people talk about heaven. It bothers me that the most...

April 14, 2013

Breathing kingdom on airplanes and elsewhere

In the wake of the amazing Missio Alliance conference, I wanted to continue to wrestle...

February 2013

February 26, 2013

The Son of Man, a Rave, and a Banjo

This Sunday, I preached on how Jesus' call to take up our crosses is not...

February 10, 2013

Relationships: Tools, Idols, and Foes or Family, Body, and Kingdom

This week's sermon concluded our post-Christmas sermon series "Spiritual Not Religious" in which we were...

December 2012

December 27, 2012

Looking Back on 2012: April-May

In March, I fasted from blogging for Lent. April and May of 2012 were dominated...

November 2012

November 13, 2012

A vision for my future church plant

I'm spending this week at the Virginia conference's New Church Leadership Institute training for church...

October 2012

October 28, 2012

Pleasantville Christianity vs. Kingdom Christianity

This weekend, I preached on the text of the parable of talents. My regular readers...

October 26, 2012

How children save us

Over the past several years, as I've gone through the ordination process, I have had...

September 2012

September 22, 2012

Living in two worlds

When strange things happen, it's best to face them plainly. I took down the last...

September 14, 2012

Staying "on message" for Jesus

Burke United Methodist Church is doing a campaign this fall called Jesus is My Candidate:...

July 2012

July 17, 2012

Thoughts on the alleged demise of liberal Christianity

I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Ever since the Episcopal convention last week, all the Christians...

April 2012

April 26, 2012

Anxiety vs. Kingdom in the United Methodist Church

I've been following the "Call to Action" debate on the twitter feeds from the Methodist...

February 2012

February 12, 2012

Deliver us from evil

Sermon preached 2/11-12/2012 at Burke UMC Text: Matthew 4:1-11 “Lead us not into temptation, but...

May 2011

May 16, 2011

The Outsider King (Christmas Eve sermon)

Sermon for Christmas Eve, 2010 So how many of you participated in some way in...