03 Saturday Jan 2009
Posted in Book Review, links, Wesley
I just stumbled onto this promotional video for Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley’s Sermons for Today
By the way, if any of you were not aware that I co-authored this book and have come across it somewhere else, I would love to know how and where you came across it. I would also be very interested in hearing if anyone has used it as a small group study (which is what we had in mind when we wrote the book) and how it was received.
02 Friday Jan 2009
Posted in Book Review, links
Glancing back through the books I read in 2008, here are my favorites:
10. Wesley and the People Called Methodists
9. The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief
8. In Constant Prayer (The Ancient Practices)
7. The Crisis of Younger Clergy
6. They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations
5. Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations
4. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
3. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
2. Charles Wesley and the Struggle for Methodist Identity
1. Forgotten Ways, The: Reactivating the Missional Church
01 Thursday Jan 2009
Posted in links
These are the Top 10 posts that were viewed on my blog in 2008:
1. A Good Definition of Accountability
2. John Wesley’s Thoughts Upon Methodism (Part IV)
3. Review: The Theology of John Wesley, Kenneth J. Collins
4. About Me
6. General Conference, M.U.M., and the Quadrilateral
7. Reflections on Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Part 1
8. John Wesley’s Thoughts Upon Methodism (Part II)
23 Tuesday Dec 2008
Posted in links
Shayne Raynor at the Wesley Report has put together an excellent resource. Shayne writes excellent posts that are balanced and thought-provoking. He also compiles what he sees as the best posts from around the Methodist blogosphere. Raynor also posts excerpts from John Wesley’s journal and more.
I recommend you check out the Wesley Report, it looks like it will be a very important online resource for Methodist/Wesleyan conversation on the internet.
You can read Raynor’s vision for the Wesley Report here.
17 Wednesday Dec 2008
Tags
There are a few posts I have been meaning to link to.
Steve Rankin at Rankin File discusses what he learned during this year’s Presidential election. Rankin candidly discusses what he learned from election night about racism and the amazing breakthrough of an African American, Barack Obama, being elected to the office of President of the United States.
Shayne Raynor at the Wesley Report writes about United Methodist Churches that do not label themselves as United Methodist. Raynor explores whether United Methodists should be bothered by churches like Granger Community Church which effectively hide their United Methodist affiliation. (As a cool bonus, I learned that Starbucks owns Seattle’s Best… you learn something new every day.)
Steve Manskar and Steve Rankin both help focus our attention during this season of Advent. Manskar at Accountable Discipleship writes that Advent is not Christmas-lite. Rankin lists a few Christmas pet peeves. The one that has particularly stuck with me is the reminder that Christmas should not just be viewed cyclically – as a yearly celebration of Jesus’ birth. Instead of looking backwards to Jesus’ birth, Advent should be a time of looking forward to the “future and full coming kingdom of God.”
16 Tuesday Dec 2008
Posted in Book Review, links, Wesley
I have recently learned that Abingdon Press will be publishing in early 2009 The Wesley Study Bible. From what I have read, this sounds like an excellent resource. It is edited by Joel B. Green and William H. Willimon and has over 150 contributors. I am hoping to get my hands on a copy so I can review it in detail here.
You can view an update at the Wesley Report and learn about how to join the facebook Wesley Study Bible group as well.
The retail price of the Wesley Study Bible will be $39.95, but it can be pre-ordered for $24.95.
30 Thursday Oct 2008
Posted in links
In a previous post I vented about my frustration with the slanderous emails I received about one of the Presidential candidates. Today I noticed that Adam Hamilton has posted about receiving similar emails. He makes a very interesting (and disturbing) observation that he consistently receives these emails from Christians, not from folks from another religious background, or from people who do not believe in God. Are Christians particularly good at spreading lies, or are we particularly lazy, or uninformed? I appreciate Adam’s post on this topic, and the reasonable response he occasionally offers to the emails he receives.
Steve Rankin has recently posted about a similar trend, except through campaign ads. His disgust at the way that Christians have been influenced by distortions and lies is palpable. And, I must confess I identify with his frustration. I can see how people could come up with good reasons to vote for McCain or Obama. Yet, the reasons Christians offer far too often are not good reasons because they are based in fear or lies. (For example: It is not a good reason to vote for McCain because Obama is a Muslim. In fact, Obama is a professing Christian, which is why that would not be a good reason… it is really pretty straight forward.)
It seems to me that we have a tremendous opportunity in being able to voice our opinion in the political process by voting. This year it has been particularly obvious that with this opportunity comes great responsibility. I believe that Christians have an obligation to be informed and to take the time to separate the truth from lies, and then vote based on the real issues at stake. We should be a city on a hill, or salt and light in an often putrid process… but too often we seem to be the ones that are keeping the rumor mill going and perpetuating misinformation. God help us.
Good thing the election is almost here, maybe I can stay off this soapbox for awhile…
“I’m Kevin and I approve this message.”
22 Wednesday Oct 2008
Posted in links
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Matt Judkins writes about Misconceptions about mega-churches.
Will reveals his controversial question, which generated some discussion.
Dr. Wright shares an interesting table that reveals the gender gap in the United States and other countries.
21 Tuesday Oct 2008
Posted in links
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Ok, I need your help! I am thinking about writing my term paper for Philosophy of Religion on Philosophical Foundations of the Emergent Church. I have read quite a bit of the work of important voices in the Emergent Church (McLaren, Jones, Kimball) but I am not as confident in my understanding of the philosophers and philosophies that influence folks in the Emergent Church. In my paper, I am particularly interested in looking at issues of epistemology (concerns the origins, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge). On the Emergent account, how do we come to know God? How do we go about investigating the truth claims of a proposition? Who and what have influenced emergent understandings of these issues?
My interest in this paper is not to write an apologetic, or to attack the Emergent Church movement, rather it is to seek to understand the foundations that it is built upon better.
I would be grateful if you would post any specific books that you would recommend in the comments (again, I am not looking for books by the Emergent authors like McLaren’s Everything Must Change, but books that have deeply informed McLaren and others and are at work behind the scenes in their practical theology). I would appreciate books that might provide a general introduction to postmodern philosophy that are particularly insightful to folks in emergent, and particularly important works by actual philosophers that have influenced the emergent understanding of epistemology and answering truth claims about God.
One more request: If you don’t know, but you know someone who might have ideas, I would be grateful if you would take a second to email them and mention this post and ask them to help me out. And if you happen to have a direct contact to Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Dan Kimball, or anyone else, you get bonus points if you get them to directly respond! (Notice how I linked to their names so that they might stumble upon my post… devious, I know…)
I think this paper could make an important contribution to understanding the Emergent Church, but my ability to undertake it will depend on being able to find some starting points for getting into the material.
06 Monday Oct 2008
Posted in links
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Dan Kimball has a thoughtful review about Bill Maher’s new movie “Religulous” on his blog. I often enjoy Kimball’s posts and wanted to pass this one on to you. I don’t watch a whole lot of movies, so I don’t know that I will get around to watching this one, but Kimball raises some very important questions. And I really appreciate that for him the result is being energized for ministry. You can read his post here.
Kevin M. Watson 