Henri on power, love and leadership

Yesterday Josh Graves posted on his blog this quote from Henri Nouwen:
One of the greatest ironies of the history of Christianity is that its leaders constantly gave in to the temptation of power—political power, military power, economic power, or moral and spiritual power—even though they continued to speak in the name of Jesus, who did [...]

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Alexander Campbell as a speaker

I’m up late reading…this paragraph caught my eye:
He trusted the common person to comprehend his most seminal and profound concepts.  He did not save his groundbreaking ideas for educators or the clergy, but freely shared them with the rank and file.  He did not have one message for the elite and another for the ordinary [...]

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Survey Says

While I may have blogged little in the last six weeks, I did think about it.  One of the things I mulled over was the survey on the side-bar to your right.  Here are the results of the latest survey:
In the ‘other’ category three responses were submitted:

1.
combination of exegetical with motivational (modern-day application)
 
 

2.
If they’re done [...]

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Checking in from the hill

Just a moment to check in and give an update from the Stone-Campbell Journal Conference, now underway in sunny Cincinnati at Cincinnati Christian University.
CCU is a city on a hill…literally.  I’ll post a picture tomorrow.  It is also a city on a hill figuratively and spiritually.  though portions of the neighborhood have declined (not all [...]

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Once in 43 years…

“I remember being out of the pulpit one Sunday on account of sickness in 43 years,” writes a minister, now long dead, about his preaching career.  His comment is preserved for us on  a pension application.  It is a testimony to his commitment to preaching, and it is a rather outstanding record at that.  That [...]

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Looking Back: Of Disclaimers and Critical Thinking

Installment 3 (see the two prior posts below) is from the 21 June 2005 edition of Occasional Espistles of Grace and Peace and is entitled Of Disclaimers and Critical Thinking.
Given my profession I regularly surf church, parachurch, biblical studies and other like ministry websites. Invariably I run across disclaimers, usually on the links pages, that read [...]

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Looking Back: Follow the Truth

Installment 2 of my trio (read yesterday’s post below for the set-up) is also from the 20 June 2005 edition of Occasional Episltes of Grace and Peace.  The title is Follow the Truth:
…wherever it may lead” read the sign on the Music City Assembly of God…not bad for a marquee one-liner. I snapped a picture [...]

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Looking Back on Blogging: A Trio Worth Re-reading

I began blogging in June 2005 at blogspot and continued there through August 2008.  Before that I maintained a faculty web page on the Ezell-Harding site for over two years.  That page was obviously academic in nature (my Biblical and Theological Studies links page is the residue of that old page).  My vocation, as I see it, has changed little in these [...]

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Home for Christmas

Having spent several days with Laura’s family, we are now safely back home in brown, wet–balmy even– Middle Tennessee.  We left Nashville last week with temps in the 60’s.  Lincoln County, MO had highs of about 12 Sunday and Monday.  We skirted some ice and freezing rain (fine by me) and missed snow (disappointing) only to [...]

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the teacher as tour guide

I wrapped up my introductory comments on Genesis yesterday morning in class. Next week we begin in the actual text (1.1-2.4 to be exact). I shared with my students how one of the driving metaphors behind my conception of teaching is that of the teacher-as-tour-guide. I find it a compelling metaphor (for my [...]

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