tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70937717751783337772026-07-31T04:48:02.292-05:00Humble FutureCheck out my new site at www.humblefuture.com.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.comBlogger903125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-45008904619868263862014-08-22T12:31:00.000-05:002014-08-22T12:31:00.109-05:00New Humble Future Site
Check out the new location for Humble Future at HumbleFuture.com.
I'll be posting all my new material there (as well as an up to date list of works published).
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-30022798790005102882014-07-11T15:45:00.000-05:002014-07-11T15:45:26.145-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 9): Not About Sex
This may come as a shock, but our conversation about homosexuality is not actually about sex.
I know sex is part of homosexuality. It's right there in the middle of the word and in the middle of our thoughts. But it doesn't belong in the middle of our conversation.
Photo Credit: Nick Sherman
Our global culture tends to make desire ourAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-72709208110140221702014-07-09T14:58:00.002-05:002014-07-09T14:58:44.591-05:00Renovating Holiness: Helena the Hedgehog and Holiness (Janel Apps Ramsey)
This essay is part of the Renovating Holiness Project. Janel Apps Ramsey is a staff member at Bloom Church Denver. She
graduated from NTS with an MA in Theological Studies. She loves
exploring topics of women and church, wholeness and healing, and techno
music. She lives with her husband Baird, cats Yao and Ty, and Helena
the Hedgehog. She loves waking up and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-52669113172943755442014-06-30T17:19:00.000-05:002014-06-30T17:19:26.107-05:00Renovating Holiness: Wesleyan Sanctification Encountering Buddhist Enlightenment (Musung Jung)
This essay is part of the Renovating Holiness Project. Musung Jung is Assistant Professor in the Department of Christian Studies at Korea Nazarene University. He studied at Yonsei University, Northwest Nazarene University, Korea Nazarene University (B.Th.), Emory University (M.Div.) and Asbury Theological Seminary (Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies). Due to the format of this blogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-67119154610886811872014-06-20T15:45:00.001-05:002014-06-20T15:45:45.308-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 8): Not About Equality
Photo Credit: See-Ming Lee
The conversation about homosexuality is not about equality. Not just about equality. Not simply that. Equality is not the primary issue at hand. Not for Christians.
For Christians, the primary issue at hand is understanding how the Bible guides our lives. Nothing supersedes that.&Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-16498292438047546652014-06-17T09:23:00.002-05:002014-06-17T13:35:18.525-05:00Renovating Holiness: Empowerment in Holiness and Feminism (Deanna Hayden)
I set down the phone, dropped my face in my hands and slowly let the tears fall. As my husband sat nearby, holding our baby boy, he waited for me to settle down enough to explain. A year before, I had felt the Lord’s call on my heart to become a senior pastor. Following months of communicating with districts around the country, I had finally interviewedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-48101347390546768752014-06-13T20:06:00.000-05:002014-06-13T20:06:14.688-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 8): Not About Whether We Believe in the Bible
Photo Credit: David Campbell
"The Bible says homosexuality is wrong" - that's the starting point for many conservatives. The greatest fear among both conservatives and moderates is that, if the Church accepts homosexuality in any form, then we are rejecting the authority of the Bible.
The whole debate about homosexuality isAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-5632887395104933092014-06-10T18:07:00.000-05:002014-06-10T18:07:17.551-05:00Renovating Holiness: A View from the Dutch Pews (Ank Verhoeven)
Editor's Note: This essay is part of the Renovating Holiness project. Ank Verhoeven is a pastor in the Netherlands, and this essay reflects a series of dialogs with the people and pastors of Vlaardingen Church of the Nazarene, a church of some 1,700 people.
Vlaardingen Church of the Nazarene
Personally, I feel torn. I love theology; I really do. I Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-32760209115078248172014-05-30T12:34:00.000-05:002014-05-30T12:34:58.512-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 7): Not About Sodom and Gomorrah
“Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!” (Genesis 19:5).
www.freebibleimages.org
The Biblical cities Sodom and Gomorrah have become idiomatic of wanton sinfulness. In Genesis 18, God tells Abraham that God will destroy the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah "because their sin is so flagrant" (Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-2478578613412404072014-05-28T15:25:00.000-05:002014-05-28T15:25:06.237-05:00Renovating Holiness: Last Round of Contributors
The Renovating Holiness project is well underway. Gen-X and Millennial Nazarenes from around the world are revisioning sanctification for the 21st century. We have inherited a beautiful theological house that is in serious need of renovation.
Photo Credit: "Nathan"
These are the topic summaries for our last round of contributors.
Christa Klosterman (Pastor, Idaho & Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-19515535318551326612014-05-27T15:40:00.002-05:002014-05-27T15:40:54.949-05:00Renovating Holiness: Reclaiming Entire Sanctification (Tim Crutcher)
Tim Crutcher is a theology professor at Southern Nazarene University. This is his contribution to the Renovating Holiness Project.
Photo Credit: Jaroslaw Filiochowski
Just how “entire” is “entire sanctification”? That’s always been a difficult question for me. On the one hand, I read in Scripture the call to “Be perfect, thereforeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-49395092916472048782014-05-23T16:53:00.000-05:002014-05-23T17:05:00.596-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 6): Not about Individual Worth
When Christians start talking about homosexuality, most LBGT people feel that their personal identity is under attack.
Photo Credit: Axel.Foley
This is unfortunately understandable, but fortunately not true.
It's understandable for several reasons.
First of all, some Christians mistakenly paint homosexual practice as a super-sin. They Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-54499669313178273142014-05-16T16:52:00.003-05:002014-05-16T16:52:44.843-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 5): Not about Nature vs. Nurture
Are people born this way? Or are they shaped this way by experience?
Photo Credit: McBeth
People often think the "nature vs. nurture" debate is extremely important.
For gay-affirming people, the argument for "nature" usually goes something like this.
1. I was born gay. I always knew I was different. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-51158147894393245032014-05-13T12:36:00.001-05:002014-05-13T12:36:54.147-05:00Renovating Holiness: Sarmiento on THE POWER OF ONE
Christian Sarmiento, South America Regional Director for the Church of the Nazarene, is a few years too old for the Renovating Holiness project. (To qualify as a full contributor, you must be born on or after 1960.) However, he believes in the project and contributed this essay for the discussion. “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-42368778713238211882014-05-09T16:43:00.000-05:002014-05-09T16:43:39.062-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 4): Not about Promiscuity
The stereotype is that gay men are extremely promiscuous. This aura of promiscuity plays into many Christian conversations about homosexuality explicitly or implicitly. The idea seems to be that if we accept homosexuality in any form, then we are accepting wide-scale promiscuity: "Just go out and have sex with whoever you want in whatever bathroom you want."
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-14757532214390971692014-05-02T13:43:00.002-05:002014-05-02T13:43:49.464-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 3): Not About an Orientation
Photo Credit: Umayyr
The conversation that the church is having is not about homosexuality as an orientation.
In a statement on homosexuality, my own denomination puts it like this:
The Bible says nothing about homosexuality as the term is often used today. Homosexuality is often used today to describe a person’s sexual orientation. The Bible does not Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-56093720609786560062014-04-25T14:06:00.001-05:002014-04-25T14:06:29.331-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 2): 4 Reasons We Need to Talk
One of the most common responses to this series so far is: “Why do we even need to talk about this?” My conservative brothers and sisters feel that discussion is pointless because the Bible gives a clear prohibition against homosexual activity in all forms. As one friend said, “Are we going to decide that God was wrong?”
Here are 4 reasons we need to talk about homosexuality.
1. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-43536712738430097432014-04-18T11:15:00.000-05:002014-04-25T13:07:12.188-05:00A Better Conversation about Homosexuality (Part 1)
Photo by Burstein!
Obviously, homosexuality is one of the hottest and most controversial topics of our time. We have experienced rapid social change both in secular society and in the church. (See my discussion about World Vision for more on these changes.)
However, it seems to me that we are not actually having this discussion with grace and wisdom. First of all, our debates Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-81419195308054802582014-04-12T09:04:00.000-05:002014-04-12T09:04:12.914-05:00Stolen
A poem in response to the painting, “Wagon Wheel” by Michele Wood in the I Lay My Stitches Down series on display in the Covenant Fine Arts Center at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI in April 2104. In the painting, a slave woman is morning as a white man takes her daughter forcibly. The white man's shadow has horns like a devil.
Stolen, stolen!
My baby’s been stolen.
She Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Calvin College, 3201 Burton Street Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA42.9298813 -85.58765289999996617.407846799999998 -126.89624689999997 68.4519158 -44.279058899999967tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-57148073535216538652014-04-12T07:05:00.000-05:002014-04-12T07:05:02.691-05:00When the Bud Cracks?
Photo by Epsos.de
Does the bud hurt when it cracks?
When Life bulges out of its conical chocolate shell
In mint green then red or vivid pink,
Does the bud cry out in pain,
Why God? Why are you doing this to me?
Why can’t I remain a pretty little thing
on the end of my branch?
Why must I always be giving way
to something other, something more?
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Grand Rapids, MI, USA42.9633599 -85.66808630000002742.7774209 -85.990809800000022 43.1492989 -85.345362800000032tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-9463563728890990542014-04-01T11:56:00.000-05:002014-04-01T11:59:46.815-05:00The Value in Understanding "the Other Side"
Photo by: baejaar
Last week, I blogged about how World Vision shifted the center on the gay marriage debate, and naturally lots of people commented. One particular train of comments merits a new post.
LL: As someone who is on the other side of this debate I would ask why homosexual marriage is supported but polygamy is usually not? Is everyone here pro-polygamy too?
Me: Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-31838998358590104012014-03-26T18:18:00.001-05:002014-03-26T18:24:17.815-05:00World Vision Shifted the Center on Gay Marriage: Facts, Implications, & Questions
World Vision is blowing up the internet via gay marriage. What's going on?
THE FACTS:
Just in case you've been living under a rock, let me update you on some of the basics.
1. Rapid Legal Change. The United States is experiencing radical and rapid changes in our cultural and legal stances on gay marriage. At the beginning of 1999, no states allowed same-sex marriages or civil Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-24096795568574677292014-03-14T15:33:00.000-05:002014-03-14T15:33:19.322-05:00Thank You Thursday (#1)
by woodleywonderworks
OK, so I'm a day late, but I got the idea on a Thursday.
Last night, Amy and Joe Jamrock invited Sarah and I to attend a fundraising/celebration dinner for Frontline Foundations - a fantastic Christian substance abuse treatment center based here in Chesterton, IN. The keynote speaker was Tim Sanders - former Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0Chesterton, IN, USA41.6105937 -87.06419919999996241.5155977 -87.22556069999996 41.705589700000004 -86.902837699999964tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-39745907211970053532014-03-05T16:09:00.001-06:002014-03-12T15:13:31.005-05:00Renovating Holiness: Contributions Round 5
Photo by morganlevy
We now have more than 130 confirmed contributors to the Renovating Holiness Project. Having inherited our grandparents' theological house which desperately needs updating, we are faced with three options: resentment, rejection, and renovation. Nazarenes from around the world (from at least 24 countries) are joining together to revision sanctification forAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7093771775178333777.post-46366130179567313132014-02-19T14:54:00.000-06:002014-02-20T11:59:15.407-06:00Renovating Holiness: Discovering the Values of Holiness [Grant Zweigle]
This is the first full essay submitted to the Renovating Holiness Project.
Grant Zweigle pastored in Kansas City, MO; Seattle, WA; and currently in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Grant and his wife Aisling are relocating to Manila, Philippines with their two boys in 2015. Grant is completing a Doctor of Ministry at Nazarene Theological Seminary.
My grandmother lived in a GermanAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02987266606745218704noreply@blogger.com0