Against Nothingness

The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom. - Sun Tzu We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction. - Douglas MacArthur No, I am not really going to write about tactics or war. I am talking about a religious retreat. That is, taking some time away from my regular daily routine to take part in intensive rest, prayer, reading, fellowship, and communing with my Lord and Savior, my God and King.  This is an activity I need to do regularly, and I am blessed to work at a church which encourages us pastors to take a retreat day once a month. I am also blessed to be part of a denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which organizes an annual 3.5 day long retreat for us youth pastors.  So, I am off to RockRidge Canyon today.  Mostly, I want to ask you to please pray for my family as Kristina ...

At the end of February Christian social networks exploded. Rob Bell a heretic? Could it be?  I posted several times myself; talking about evangelical controversialists  and disagreeing with Kevin DeYoung that Rob Bell had already outed himself as a heretic.  The book isn't out yet, but the posts continue. In a comment, Roger alerted me to the fact that the issue hit mainline news shortly after it all got started. Now it is there again: in USA Today's article:  Pastor/author's 'Love Wins' bedevils traditionalists  (concluding with a very insightful comment by Richard Mouw) Further, several bloggers have received advanced copies of the book, and so reviews are starting to come out as well. Some are more positive; like this one.  Others, such as that from Kevin DeYoung , less so. Here's my question. Should I buy, read, and review "Love Wins" by Rob Bell? Do you care, and would you find it helpful/interesting? 

So, this news is making big waves right now.  I have seen numerous blog posts and comments, facebook 'likes', and even received personal email linking this story because it "makes one think."  In a nutshell, Anne Rice is leaving "Christianity" because she refuses to be anti: gay, feminist, science, and democrat.  She also cannot be a part of this "quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group." But, her faith in Christ is still central  to her life. You can follow the link in the article to Anne Rice's facebook page, where you can scan her status updates and read her words for yourself, complete with over 2000 comments that I have no interest in scanning.  So, here's what I think.   1. People get frustrated with the church every day.  Some stay, some go.  But, when someone famous does it, we all sit up and take notice.  If the known fact that the church in the west has been, on average, declining ...