The Biblical Exegesis of a Renowned Atheist

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“Christians seldom realize that much of the moral consideration for others which is apparently promoted by both the Old and New Testaments, was originally intended to apply only to a narrow defined in-group. ‘Love thy neighbor’ didn’t mean what we now think it means. It meant only ‘Love another Jew.'” -Richard Dawkins

You see friends, what you have here is one of the world’s foremost anti-theists, what Becky Garrison describes in her book as “the new atheists.” Richard Dawkins not only believes there is no God, he thinks religious faith is dangerous and a threat to our society. Continue reading →

VBS Prayerwalk

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I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we have Outrigger Island coming up at our church. On Wednesday night we prayerwalked the church campus and prayed for each activity and classroom area. Your church could do this for any VBS. We handed out prayerwalk brochures with specific recommendations of what to pray about in each area, then divided our crowd up into small prayer groups to divide and concur. Areas you want to include are: sanctuary (or large meeting place), classrooms for each class or age group, music room, missions study area, craft room, refreshment area (and the people who serve them), recreation area, and your bus or van ministry. Don’t forget about preschoolers and babies when you pray for class groups, and certainly remember your pastor, youth leader and VBS directors.

Vacation Bible School is usually one of the most important ways that a church is visible in its community. Evangelism and church growth are definitely priorities during this week. Pray ahead of time that God would bless each of your workers as well as every child that comes in. Organizing a prayer walk or prayer meeting also helps everyone to focus on how important your mission is, and gets everyone on the same page.

Immigration: fact and fiction

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u.s. mapI am a history teacher.  There is no denying that fact.  My degree is in political science.  If you break out in a rash or have difficulty breathing when exposed to a history lecture, look away from this window slowly and click on something else. 

This morning I heard someone say that Mexicans are taking over our country.  It’s an old argument, only it used to be the Chinese.  Same song, different verse.  Chinese immigrants basically built the American railroad from the Mississippi to the west coast.  Some railroad companies had as much as 90% of their workforce made up of Chinese immigrants.  The argument back then, get this, was that Chinamen were taking American jobs.  No they weren’t.  Continue reading →

Rantings about “stupid” Christians

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If I was writing a book on theology, I couldn’t just go off on a tangent and rant about whatever comes to mind. That’s the benefit of a blog. A good blog entry is almost bite sized; just enough for a mouthful in one sitting. Some of my online friends post 3 or 4 times a day. Some of them have no unpublished thoughts. I don’t often rant, but if you want to know what just burns my grits, it’s stupid Christians that make us all look bad. Continue reading →

Evangelizing Christian talks to Articulate Atheist

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I recently discovered the blog of John Shore, and the first thing I read was a coffee shop conversation he listened to between an evangelizing Christian and a guy he described as “Wasn’t Having Any.” The discussion was over John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” W.H.A. asserted that Jesus was not saying that only Christians were going to heaven, and that many Christians have abused that verse to claim it means something Christ didn’t say. Continue reading →

Why I blog in ESV

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“The ESV satisfies the preaching, memorizing, studying, and reading needs of our church, from children to adults. We are building all of our future ministry around it.”
John Piper
Pastor for Preaching and Vision, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis

I was first introduced to the English Standard Version when I joined the ministry I am presently involved with about five years ago. (see footnotes) The ESV translation is used by our Bible teachers in our classes.  Our campus minister uses it most often when preaching in chapel, but not always.  Since I got mine in 2004, I always teach and preach from it.  I believe the ESV to be the Holy Scripture presented in our modern form of spoken and written English.  It is the Bible.  Continue reading →

Do you like church?

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There are many books out right now about the dislike of church, why it has lost appeal, what should be done to reform worship, why men hate church, etc. etc.  One blogger has generated some stir on this subject, and if you like/ dislike church attendence then you should weigh in.  You’ll notice I have already.  Check out Why I Don’t Blame You for Not Liking Chruch.  Rich will appreciate it, and I think we all need to be aware of this problem if we plan to do anything about it.  The president of the SBC predicts that 20% of Southern Baptist Churches will die in the next 20 years.  (Thanks iMonk.)  It’s time to recognize.

Lifeway’s Outrigger Island

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UPDATE: This post was written back in 2008.  The link below automatically redirects to the 2009 VBS theme from Lifeway, Boomerang Express. 

This link is to Lifeway’s Outrigger Island website, where you view curriculum material, order items and share ideas. There are forums where you can chat with other directors, pastors and teachers about their plans and experiences.

Prayerwalk you VBS. That’s a new thing we did this year at our church.

Vacation Bible School – Outrigger Island

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Update: prayerwalk your VBS.

Update: ideas for planning/ decorating

Vacation Bible School begins at my church in about a week and a half. This year’s theme is “Outrigger Island,” and is basically a Hawaii surf party setting. My church always uses the material provided by LifeWay, whereas our old church back in GA never used the SBC program. I don’t think they found anything wrong with the curriculum, it’s just that 100 other churches within an hour’s drive all did the same thing. So when my wife and I took over as the VBS directors, we were told two things; what our budget was, and not to use LifeWay resources. The budget I went over anyway, and the next year was given a bigger budget. We went with Group Publishers, and even though we’ve been gone 5 years, out church back home still uses their program each summer.

Wow, did I digress or what. ANYWAY, Outrigger Island is a surfer/island theme with the motto “Know the truth, Speak the truth, Live the Truth.” Continue reading →

Lessons from the Prodigal Son

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Luke 15:11-24

The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s an old favorite. Beginning with chapter 10 and going all the way through 20, Luke basically recalls one parable after another. There’s a lot of good stuff in there, but this story is perhaps the best known; and most frequently taught. There are still good lessons we can learn from it.

Let’s begin by looking at the father in this story. He’s not your typical Jewish father. When the younger son asks for his inheritance, he’s saying in essence that he is tired of waiting for the old man to die. It would have been an appropriate response to take the young man to the gates of the city and stone him to death. Continue reading →